Note: Following is Chapter three of David Classen’s book, “Growing Older Gracefully”
When a tree is cut down the growth rings are exposed, a ring for every year the tree lived. Some growth rings are wide; those were good years when the tree had all the resources needed for thriving. Some growth rings are narrow; those were tough years for the tree with little growth. Nevertheless, they did grow. What’s interesting is that the tree has a growth ring for every year, including the year the tree died or was cut down. The growth rings are a silent message—trees never stop growing until they die. Neither should people.
Anna Mary Robertson Moses was interested in art even as a child, but she was unable to do much artistically for many years. She was a housekeeper starting at the age of twelve and was so employed for fifteen years. She married, farming alongside her husband. They had ten children, five dying in infancy, making for a busy and challenging life. Beginning at age seventy-eight, she gave painting her serious attention. This new career took off. She became famous as a painter, being better known as Grandma Moses.
Speaking of Moses, the original Moses, the one in the Bible, was eighty years old when God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. Then, too, there were the two people who encountered the infant Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem when Joseph and Mary brought him for consecration before the Lord. They were the devout Simeon and the prophetess Anna, both very old. The apostle John wrote five books in our Bible—a gospel, three letters, and the book of Revelation. Without question, he wrote them when he was old. Most scholars believe he was very old when he penned Revelation. God loves working with old people.
Most everyone enjoys celebrating the achievements of older people. Around graduation time each year, there are profiles of people graduating from high school or college who are well advanced in years. The common theme in these stories is the enthusiastic celebration by family, friends, and fellow students young enough to be the celebrated graduate’s grandchildren or great-grandchildren.
We love stories about older people who try something new or achieve a milestone later in life, whether they’re stories in the Bible or outside the Bible. They can inspire our own continuing development as we grow older.
Parker Palmer writes, “We need to re-frame aging as a passage of discovery and engagement, not decline and inaction.”1 This doesn’t mean we adopt a bucket list that includes skydiving, going back to school, or running a marathon. There are countless ways we can continue developing, growing as a person or exploring new ways of impacting those in our sphere of influence. God’s call for each of us to grow older gracefully is a unique call.
As a young pastor, which was a long time ago, I admired the senior citizens in my church who enthusiastically participated in Bible studies. Now I’m the senior citizen, determined I should live out what they modeled for me so many years ago—learning and growing in my walk with the Lord.
Sometimes, I’m frustrated upon learning a new insight from the Bible, grumbling that I hadn’t seen the insight years earlier. I must remind myself that the fact I’m still discovering new things in the Bible is good, that God’s Word is inexhaustible. We should continue being a student of God’s Word until our final graduation day, the day when we die. What the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians, complimenting them, has application for us as well. “Your faith is growing more and more” (2 Thessalonians 1:3). As we grow older our faith should grow more and more.
New opportunities for being God’s person among those in our sphere of influence are still available as we grow older. “I’ve outlived all my friends” is a lament that need never come from our lips. We can work at nurturing relationships with people younger than we are.
We’re mistaken when we believe those younger than us don’t enjoy hanging around with old people. If we’re an interesting person who is interested in them, they’ll enjoy a relationship with someone much older.
Perhaps, though, despite our best efforts, our sphere of influence might shrink with retirement from work, decreasing mobility, or other factors. But the remaining relationships can grow deeper. The older we get the less likely we’ll find ourselves in a rush, allowing for more quality time for the relationships we have. During the first part of Jesus’s three-year ministry, he often addressed large crowds, but as time went on, he focused on his twelve disciples. Shifting our focus of influence toward those who most likely will attend our funeral or memorial service can be a natural and proper realignment of our priorities. Whatever the number, we can continue carrying out God’s call on our life, blessing those he’s put around us.
Just as a tree doesn’t stop growing until it dies, so we, until we draw our last breath, should live with the conviction that God is not finished with us. We still have things to learn, work to do.
Let’s embrace the following great promise from God: “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green” (Psalm 92:12–14).
We can continue growing in him and in our obedience to him. We can continue staying fresh and green.
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