I am in that part of my Yearly Bible Reading Plan where I’m reading the book of Jeremiah. I am amazed at how much of Jeremiah can be applied to contemporary culture. Yesterday, however, I came across a definition of old age (my contemporary culture), “the old, those weighed down with years.” [Jeremiah 6:11]
Having gained entry into that group labeled “old,” I can verify that definition is quite accurate. Each year leaves a weight on my body. I laugh sometimes when I get up wondering what new ache I might experience today, or what part of me isn’t working quite as well today as yesterday. The other night as I headed for bed, I had warm compresses on my eyes, an ice pack on my neck, and was putting on my copper-fit knee sleeves because the weather was changing. I have become my grandmother!
Yep, each year seems to add a little more weight in the sense that my body, no matter how hard I try to keep it young and fresh with diet and exercise, feels just a bit heavier. My body is aging, becoming weighed down a little more as the years pass. But, let me be perfectly clear, that’s just my body, and only my body.
As my body is becoming heavier, I am also experiencing a lightness to my soul and spirit. I soar more often with the LORD, my praise and worship of my Savior and LORD is deeper and more profound. I sense God’s presence more often. I care less what people think and care more about what my LORD thinks of me.
If I look ahead at what the next years hold in this life, I see increasing weakness and eventual frailty. But if I look ahead with spiritual eyes, I see strength and glory and an eternal home where all pain and weakness and tears and death are banished forever. I am living each day in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Thank you, LORD JESUS. Amen & Amen
