I’M OLD BUT NOT FORSAKEN


By Akin Ojumu

Contrary to what society wants you to believe, old age is a beautiful thing. Yes, the hair may be graying out and the joints and bones are barely hanging in there, old age is a joyous event. The memory may be playing tricks and the stomach limited in the quantity of food it can process at one time, getting old is fabulous indeed. 

Aging is a triumph and not a tragedy. Gray hair is a crown of glory. Wisdom is with the aged and understanding in length of days. While the young glory in their strength, the old man is venerated in his gravity and experience. The gray hair is a badge of honor that qualifies the aged to give counsel on matters of doubt and difficulty. The old man’s hair is an index of prudence and wisdom.

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” (1 Corinthians 13:11)

As the blinding fog of youthfulness gives way to the brightness of maturity that flows from life’s experiences, everything comes to proper perspective in old age. A village without a sage is like a well without water. What an old man sees sitting down, the young man can only hope to see standing up on tippy toes. 

With old age comes a nearness of God’s presence. There’s a surrealness in knowing the temporal is ending and the eternal is beginning. For the elderly who has lived their life in honor of God, the sense of anticipation of the reward that awaits in the kingdom of God is beyond what word can describe. O what a joy it is to be old and bound for eternal glory.

But even now, while still in this world, God’s tender care for the aged never ceases. The everlasting arms never weary, for He continues to carry the aged. The maternal care of Jehovah for the elderly endures even to the end of life. His watchfulness, his providence, his protection, never fail. This is the reason the aged should not lose heart, even when his heart is acting up with all manner of symptoms. Though his outer self is wasting away, his inner self is being renewed day by day.

What’s more, with the meteoric advancement in science and ever-increasing technological breakthroughs, “Old age is no longer equivalent to disease, infirmity, frailty, decrepitude and slowing down. The brain is proving to be subject to repair and growth and this plasticity promises greater cognitive health,” as Dr Robert N. Butler writes in his biography titled, “Why Survive? Being Old in America.”

“I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” (Psalm 37:25).

The Almighty God has got the back of the aged. As long as the heart is right with God and His precepts are followed, He has promised He will not abandon. Now, tell me, what’s cooler than that?

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