In a recent edition of the Clarion Ledger in the comics section, Jim Davis has Garfield (the cat) doing some contemplation on “aging.” Garfield: “Don’t you hate it when you forget why you walked into a room?” “For instance, I’m on my way to…” And Garfield thinks a bit and then says, “Or maybe I’m there.” Most of us can identify with Garfield. We cannot find the car keys. Where did I leave my phone? And a person I know could not find her glasses. She looked all over the place for them. Another person walks in and sees the activity, calls her by name and says, “They are on your head.” Aging, it is a fact of life. If you keep living, you will experience it.
Having said that, I want to challenge you by sharing a portion of Psalm 92:
v. 12 – “The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree; He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.”
v. 13 – “Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
v. 14 – “They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green,”
v. 15 – “To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
Notice, if we are where we are supposed to be, aging will not stop us. We will still yield fruit in old age. We will be full of sap and very green. Still useful, still valuable for kingdom work. Still serving the Lord. What a blessing it is to bear fruit in old age. I especially like the words the Psalmist uses: full of sap and very green. A brother in Christ, a good friend of mine, had cancer. He was in the process of dying. He was bedridden. He had been an active Christian all his life. What could he do now being bedridden? He asked for a church directory, and he began to call people whose names were in the directory. He would encourage them to stay close to the Lord by being involved in the work of the church. He did that until he died. He was full of sap and very green. He still yielded fruit in old age. I want to be like him. What about you? Does “full of sap and very green” describe you?
Les Ferguson, Sr
S. Huntington Church of Christ
