When I was fourteen, I thought my great-aunt quite old. Her face was wrinkled and her hair was gray around the temples and balding on top; she leaned on a cane, walked with a stoop, and occasionally her voice faded and cracked. I couldn’t believe it when she said, “I still feel young inside, just like a girl.”
Now my face is wrinkling, my hair is totally gray and I keep a cane handy when my knee threatens to buckle. Some days it’s a challenge to stand straight and my voice has lost resiliency. I Now believe my aunt told the truth that she felt young inside, like a girl.
Occasionally, time coalesces and memories merge. When I look at my children with graying hair and AARP cards in their wallets, I can still feel their squiggling warmth in my arms as infants, hear them as toddlers running around my feet, look into their eyes as teens asking for the car, smile on them as newlyweds, and root for them as middle agers who rise to meet and overcome challenges. I love them with exponentially greater love than I knew possible when they were babies because our years of history roll into our present moments together. Watching them become the people they are today makes them extraordinary beings to me.
Surely a mature leaf, dried and shrinking, carries the tender youthfulness of spring, and the full rich maturity of summer within the fine webbing holding it together through the autumn of life.
Surely our Father God wants us to see that the incredible outward changes we move through from birth to old age—changes far greater than those in most other mammals—are pictures to encourage faith and prepare us for the truth that we will still be ourselves when we exchange our mortal bodies for eternal heavenly ones.
I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Psalm 139:14 NIVIf the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you. Romans 8:11 Good News Translation
