Mark Twain was onto something when he said,”youth is wasted on the young.” Why is it that we lose our hearing just when we have learned to listen well?  Why does our eyesight become cloudy just as we are seeing things more clearly than we ever have before?  Why does our voice grow faint just when what we have to say has the value experience bestows?  Why does our heart grow weak just as our love for others grows stronger than it has ever been before?

Our steps may falter even as our resolve grows firmer.  Time takes some things from us for sure,  but it deposits more than it withdraws.  Time takes from us the tangible, giving us in exchange the intangible.  Now we know that what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal.  (2Cor. 4:18)  So to lose what is temporary and gain what is eternal,  seems an excellent trade-off to me.  While our bodies are growing weaker, our spirits are growing stronger.  Our minds may cease to remember the multitude of minutia that is part of our daily lives, yet our hearts will retain the reality of our identity in Christ, whose we are and where we are going.

Proverbs 16:31 says, “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.”  If more of us believed that, maybe we wouldn’t spend our time and money concealing our crown of splendor with the magic of hair color.  Not all cultures feel the need to conceal their crowns of splendor as we do.  Its a matter of focus,  do we focus on what we are losing or what we are gaining each day?  If we lose our self-centeredness  and gain empathy we are the richer for it.  If judgement is replaced with mercy the gain is ours.  God wants to give us something better than what time has taken from us here.  God’s gifts are eternal and they are always good.   (James 1:17)

God promises that He will renew our strength, that we will soar on wings like eagles; we will run and not grow weary, we will walk and not be faint.   Isaiah 40:31   This is what He will do when our hope is in Him (and not in ourselves).   All I can say is, thank you Lord,  I need You every hour.

sincerely,                                     Grace Day