Devotional Thoughts from Chris Magruder
At this very moment, I sit here at my desk staring at a picture on my phone of my first grandson. This perfect little boy is now almost 2 weeks old.
Could life get any better?
But wait!
Hold on!
How did I get here and how so quickly?
Sure I’m well into “middle age” but there’s no way I’m old enough to have a grandkid. I don’t like to dwell on it too long, but the reality is I am getting older. The days turn into years and the speed at which this happens seems to increase with each day. I am reminded of just how sweet and precious life is, how fleeting and “vapor-like” it truly is.
It is a good thing to remind ourselves of how special… how sacred is the time we get on this Earth. We deliberately focus our time this week on the sanctity or sacredness of human life.
Due to the working of God in creating us in His image (Gen. 1:26) our lives are sacred no matter how long we live. From a newborn like my grandson to a centennial, or even someone like me stuck in the middle trying to press pause on middle age, our lives are sacred.
God has given us an opportunity to fight for these sacred ones that don’t have a voice, like the unborn or those who are treated like property and cast into slavery. I would submit there is a particular category of image bearers who often get overlooked. Those that aren’t young enough to blaze a new trail and don’t quite have the same energy to maintain what they used to do, but image bears of the Almighty with value and purpose all the same.
DID YOU KNOW?
■ Some 20 percent of all people who have ever lived past age 65 are alive now!2
■ In 1860, half the population of the United States was under age 20, and the vast majority of the population was not expected to live to age 65.3
■ From 1990 to 1996, the number of Americans 65 or older increased elevenfold (from 3.1 million to 33.9 million). The overall percentage of the population 65 and older increased from 4.1 to 12.84
■ In 1940, just 7 percent of those age 65 would survive to age 90; by 2050, the number will climb to an astonishing 42 percent!5
■ In recent years, the number of people in the United States over 65 has more than doubled reaching 70 million people!6 Such growth means that nearly 1 in 5 Americans fit this category, up from 1 in 100 in 1900.7
In many ways growing older returns us to how we began. The majority of people, over time, become more dependent on others and it can feel unfamiliar and result in feeling lesser. However, growing older doesn’t mean losing value.
In the Bible, God places a high value on the vulnerable…littles ones, orphans, the fatherless and widows. Exodus 22:22, Deut. 27:19 and Matthew 23:14 are all examples of this. James emphasizes the role of protecting the vulnerable in this way:
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” James 1:27
This call to obedience is an active step, which demonstrates our love for God through our love and care for others. Caring for our families, our Church, little ones, those who are enslaved and yes those who are aging allows us the opportunity to show God’s love through our obedience to Him.
Today, join us as we pray these specific ways:
Growing older can often feel isolating.
Pray for those in the Crossway family that might feel this way and for ways that they would be included.
Growing older means new opportunities. As we age, we often think of the things we can’t do anymore.
Pray to see the new opportunities that your maturing is making available.
Growing older means lessons learned.
Pray for ways to learn from those that are older.
Pray for ways to share with those that are still “young”
Footnotes
1Most figures and statistics address the United States’ population, but this ‘graying of society” applies equally to the populations of most developed nations.
2Resources in Social Gerontology, “Social Gerontology and the Aging Revolution,”1. Find at
www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/geron.html.
3U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports. Special Studies, 23–190, 65+ in the United States (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996), 2:1.
4Profile of Older Americans: 1997, 2. Found at http://www.aoa.dhhs.gov/aoa/stats/profile.
5U.S. Bureau of the Census, 65+ in the United States, 3–4.
6Profile of Older Americans, 3.
7U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Special Studies, 23–190, 65+ in the U.S., Government Printing Office, 1996, 1. Find at www. Trinity.edu/~mkearl/over65.jpg.
