I remember thinking in my 50s, 60s, and 70s....."Oh sure, I'm getting older but it's not so bad. Maybe I can't run around as much, get tired more easily....but culture is right. Golden Years are wonderful!",
Well, now I'm in my 80s and life has suddenly, drastically changed. I can honestly say I am experiencing physical deterioration! Yes, my body is deteriorating....falling apart......unpredictable aches and pains.....drooping body parts pulled by gravity......wrinkly skin......edematous legs....arthritic joints. How come? Where is my body going??? 'Golden Years'? I don't think so.
Isn't it amazing. We spend our lives growing physically and mentally, producing, creating as we seek to make a name for ourselves in this highly competitive world and then......boom!....all of a sudden we start decreasing in body, mind and strength. Why did God make us this way? Why can't we humans go out to a standing ovation, glorifying our accomplishments and rejoicing in our man-made success? But instead we end our lives in our later years limping, holding our canes or wheeling along in the chair, laden with hearing aides, braces and trifocals. 'Golden Years'???
Psalm 90 describes it so well......verse 5 "You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the grass of the morning - though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered." And verse 10 "The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away." NIV
I ask myself, "Where is the Janet I knew?" But then I realize 'Janet' is still here. Even though my body is falling apart and decaying, I am still me. I am still the 'Janet' that God in His wisdom created. Even though I can't walk 2 miles a day, even though I can't sing concerts all over the place, even though I can't entertain and serve dinner for twelve, even though I can't wash the windows and vacuum the pool, even though I can't shop all day for all those things I want but don't need, even though I can't jump in the car and drive 9 1/2 hours to our lake house in Canada....I am still Janet.
I am the same Janet who thinks, feels, remembers, prays, cries, laughs, loves....all those intangible attributes that are part of me. Those personality traits are not going away. And that is the life that was, is, and always will be....me! Just the physical body is wearing down and crumbling away.
In Genesis 2: 7 we read about the creation of man...... "And the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a human being." Then we read in Genesis 3: 19 after Adam and Eve disobeyed God's commands and ate the forbidden fruit, "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return."NIV
No wonder we see ourselves deteriorating. Our physical bodies end up in dust! Our flesh literally rots, decomposes and falls away.....the bones become brittle and break.
So if my physical body is turning to dust, I know how vitally important it is to trust in my Lord and Savior. The God I dearly believe in, the precious Jesus who has protected me, loved me, healed me, gifted me has never left me. Now is the time to draw close to Him and prepare to enter His presence for that is where I will be throughout eternity. I love what it says in Revelation 21: 3-4 "Now the dwelling of God will be with men, and He will live with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." NIV What a blessing eternity will be!
Yes, the Janet that God created will live on into eternity......the non-physical, inanimate me. How beautiful....how amazing. We are all totally different people with totally individual personalities and that is why Janet will always be Janet.
I'm so glad I know Jesus, that I know His Spirit dwells in me, that I know when my body turns to dust I will be in Paradise with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3: 16 NIV
