Khasie has cut my hair for well over a decade. For a long time, she had magic scissors. They trimmed away the streaks of gray. Sadly, she apparently lost that precious tool. However, she says I have amazing highlights now. So I’ve got that going for me.

Recent articles have pointed out two truths about gray hair. One truth is that it is caused by stress. A complementary truth is that it is related to diet. Therefore, if you do not want gray hair, take care to eat only the few miserable items on the Ungray Diet and avoid stress of all kinds.

I could not shave for two weeks after surgery. This led to a rather full beard. There is no gray in that facial hair. Instead, there is Black and White. Technically, it is gray, I suppose. Either way, there is good news in today’s text for people like me. God is our Father in heaven who takes care of us from the womb to the tomb, from the cradle to the grave. We have his word on it.

Gray hair is not a concern for him. His diet is perfect and he never gets stressed. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We grow weak and frail. Our eyesight loses its sharpness. Our hearing becomes more selective. Our muscles bear less and fatigue faster.

What does God say about the inevitable changes of our aging?

• I made you.
• I will care for you.
• I will carry you.
• I will save you.

You might notice that all of the burden is on him. All of this blessing is ours.

• I am not a self-made man.
• I am never out of his care.
• When I cannot carry on, he carries me.
• When I cannot save myself, he rescues me.

Gray hair and gray beards are reminders that I belong to God and that he takes better care of me than I would take care of myself. Beyond my every ability, he is more able. He made me to live a full and meaningful life now. He made me to live with him forever.

Pity those poor souls who do not understand the beauty of gray hair and the blessing of growing old. Along with a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21), there is also coming a new body that is incorruptible and immortal (1 Corinthians 15:54). Death will lose. Life will win. We will share the victory with Jesus forever (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

 

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I will celebrate my diminishing existence because of the truth it foretells of the victory to come.

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