“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV
I was a young woman when I learned how it is with old people. My cousin Gracie taught me. We used to write letters to one another, just newsy little correspondence to keep up – something to look forward to in the mail. Gracie lived in Pineville, Louisiana, and she had a large yard with a garden that she loved. She wrote about her planting and cooking and friends and family. One day her letter said she still felt like a young woman in her twenties, and she never stopping being surprised at her aging body. She was in her seventies then.
Since then many, many old people have reinforced that theme to me. My own father – during his last days – smiled, eyes shut, and said, “I’m going to be a young man again.” As for me, I sat in the hip beauty salon I patronize and thought about how all the youngsters probably dismissed me as one of the older crowd. They’d have no way to know I’m still twenty-five on the inside. If I try to kick the inevitable can down the road and don’t “act my age”, I’m a pretender. Fun maybe, but certainly not authentic. The longer one carries on such a masquerade, the more grotesque it becomes. Youthfulness and immaturity are two very different behaviors.
People have been searching for the Fountain of Youth for a long, long time. One of my fond childhood memories is passing through St. Augustine, Florida, on family vacation and visiting the tourist attraction memorializing Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth. Some believed there was a spring in the New World with waters so ethereal wood did not even float in them. Supposedly people who bathed in these waters lived to be 120 years old and had skin so supple it appeared to have been rubbed with oil. They had the dew of youth (Psalm 110:3).
There’s no question living in a cursed world roughs up a body over time. As my Aunt Mabel and many others have said, “Getting old is Hell.” I won’t rebut that statement because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16). But we do have some assurance of benefits from the Lord that help our physical bodies. It is the Lord “Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed liked the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:5) The Hebrew word translated “mouth” carries the meaning ornament. Could the Psalmist have been thinking of our physical selves? Of these “ornaments” with which we are adorned?
Paul wrote some interesting thoughts to the Romans, a culture not that different than ours. “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:10-11) Okay. You can consider this body to be dead already, even though you’re still making use of it. The Spirit inside you, though, He is Life with a Capital L. And you have a promise His life can enliven your physical self. New Life isn’t just for Resurrection Morning. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25)
We have found the Fountain of Youth. Embrace it and never die. (John 11:26). We are the eternal ones.
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for shouts of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love
O, to grace, how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
Come Thou Fount, come Thou King, come Thou precious Prince of Peace
Hear your bride, to You we sing; come Thou Fount of our blessing
Come Thou Fount, come Thou King, come Thou precious Prince of Peace
Hear your bride, to You we sing; come Thou Fount of our blessing
Happy days to all who are twenty-five and holding. Go with God!
© Melissa Kay Simonds