We have a
number of older folks coming to church with canes and behind walkers. Some of
them seem embarrassed, angry and uncomfortable because they are forced
to use such stabilizers, while others have grown to accept their added
appendage. No doubt many of these saints think others see only their crutch and
physical frailty. The writer of Hebrews paints a very different picture of aging
faith, “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and
worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff” (Heb 11:21 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----When I was a child my coming adult life was a mystery. When I cashed in my teen years for the beginning of adulthood, my adult life was a looming fright. Eight years later it was a challenge for constraining to a plan. By midlife, my adult life was a process with a number of projects in tow. Entering my sixties, I can work the process in my sleep while my remaining projects take numbers to wait their turn; any with a number over ten are dismissed.
-----When I was a child, it seemed eternity was before me. As a young man, I realized the limit the end of my temporal being was. Still my remaining years seemed plenty more than my plans could fill up. Now I enter a new stage of life where my temporal demise is less years away than what some of my accomplishments took. This is changing my perception of the order of things.
-----I think this change of perception is what makes white hair savory. We tend to get emotionally lost in the mundane processes of maintaining temporal life. And the haziness of the scant details God’s Word gives of our eternal glory does not help make emotional attachment. But like floodwaters creeping up the shoreline drives one on to higher ground, my years approaching the common finality of temporal life drives my imagination on to what can be reasoned about eternal glory.
-----But the process does not have to come only by aging, let’s say, by being squeezed out of time into eternity. Although God’s Word is the revelation of truth as well as the checkpoint for truth, mixed into all the mundane facts of life are bits of reality gleaming with glory.
-----For instance, my new favorite word is tetradiplon. It’s not in dictionaries. My set of encyclopedias are missing the T volume, so its not there either. Google it. The illusive Image of Edessa was many times over portrayed as a piece of cloth, about 21 inches by 45, with the imprint of Christ’s face centered on it in landscape format, which image was in the sixth century called by my second most favorite word: acheiropoietos -not by human hands made. It is interesting that both the early handlers of the Image of Edessa and today’s scientific analyzers of the Shroud of Turin proclaimed there was no technique of human production known for explaining how the image was formed. But what the Image of Edessa was also called in the sixth century: tetradiplon -folded in half four times- demands rational thought to link these two artifacts into one and the same. For when the Shroud of Turin is folded in half four times, the result is a 21 by 45 inch surface with that image of Christ not made by human hands centered there in landscape format. Tetradiplon is a Greek word found no where else in Greek literature except for the description of the Image of Edessa. The conclusion is unavoidable. The Shroud of Turin is the Image of Edessa, which its being links the shroud to a rich historical trail of tidbits leading right back to the cloth’s discovery in the empty tomb.
-----I used to wonder that since the resurrection was so eternally critical, why did God not photograph it? Now I know. He did. And doesn’t that make what we know is real feel as real as it is!
-----The savory of white hair does not come by age alone. In fact, it can come without aging. For savory comes with attention given the truth. And the more attention discovers of truth, the more our eternal perfection fills up the meanings of temporal circumstances. The more temporal circumstances are perceived in the light of eternal life, the less their shady dark sides are worthy of attention. Attending the bright side of life lit in God’s Word makes savory. The more attention given it, the less years savory takes.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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