Aging

“…did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies…” Judges 8:34

Unusual things become commonplace after they take place, and they become mundane if they happen routinely. Not many of us are overwhelmed by the beauty of a sunrise or the glorious scene of a sunset. How much energy does it take to make the earth turn? How much power is needed to make our heart pump some seventy times a minute? We don’t often ponder about the miraculous operation of our body or how hard it has to work to keep us alive, do we? We only pay attention to it when it’s not working properly and cry foul when it finally quits working.

“We have sinned and grown old and our Father is younger than we,” wrote G.K. Chesterton. Children don’t seem to get tired of doing or seeing the same thing over and over again. “Do it again, do it again, “ they cry. They are so eager to see or do the same thing because it feels like the first time every time they experience it. O how thrilling it would be if we could duplicate the first time feeling for the things that we do routinely.

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” said the Lord Jesus.

Rick, my brother-in-law, is a collector or novel things, be they toys, video games, theological books, or most importantly, experiences of various kinds. He has a child’s heart when it comes to any novelty and is eager to experience the thrill of either playing a new game, watching a good movie, reading a new book, or doing things for the first time. He is about my age, but he is a lot younger than I am in many ways. I have become cynical because of my age and the things that I have experienced in life. Nothing seems to excite me anymore, but Rick is still charging against the world with gusto and enthusiasm, like a child who is just learning to ride a bicycle or a teenage who is sitting behind the wheel for the very first time.

Rick’s passion for life is indeed to be envied and my lack thereof is greatly to be pitied. May the Lord have mercy on me by imparting in me the first time feeling when I do things for the second or third time. The sure sign of aging is our lack of interest in seeing and learning new things.

We must change the way we look at things to cultivate our gratitude to God. We deem the thing that occurs only one time miraculous, not knowing that things that take place all the time are far more miraculous, for it takes a lot more strength to do things regularly than to just do it once. Lazarus’ coming back to life was a great miracle, but wasn’t not any less miraculous for him to live for so many years before he died, was it?

Everything that happens in the world is magical in a child’s eyes; but it is monotonous and tedious if it is view from an adult’s perspective. How we see the world determines who we really are.