News Flash! I am getting older.
I think we all are. My aging father often told us, “Getting older is not for sissies.”
There comes a moment when you realize you are no longer coasting down the road of middle-age, singing the classic tunes of your youthful days. Suddenly, the time of your life seems to pick up speed like an over-the-top rollercoaster, and every loop-de-loop adds another ache to your joint pain.
Getting out of a chair now sounds like a Rice Krispies’ orchestra–lots of snaps. crackles, and mysterious pops.
Learning new technology designed to make my life easier has become an exercise of total frustration. Canceled plans that result in me staying home are now moments of sheer celebration. I go to the gym just to compare pharmacy discount cards.
I have a long way to go to qualify for Methuselah’s super-senior discounts. Methuselah was the oldest person ever.
Since college days, I have often researched Methuselah’s timeline before the instant information age of Google and AI. Could he have known Adam? Did he know about Noah’s ark preparation? Here is a recap of Methuselah’s history recently posted by a friend.
- Methuselah is the poster child for human longevity. He lived the longest of any man in the Bible: 969 years (Genesis 5:27).
- He lived for two hundred years during Adam’s lifetime. That means he knew and conversed with Adam, the first man in God’s creation. Methuselah had firsthand knowledge of the Garden of Eden and mankind’s earliest history.
Adam did not stop walking with God after the Fall and exit from Paradise. He learned God is always with us and for us. He learned to walk with God as a broken man in a broken world with broken people. He learned how to wait in faith on the Promise.
Would you love to sit at the feet of Grandfather Adam to listen to his stories and wisdom? Methuselah was well instructed with a lifetime of knowledge and wisdom accumulated in a timespan that surpassed seven centuries.
Can you imagine the questions, especially if they might be anything like the questions my grandchildren ask of me? What was the first thing you remember? Was the world just black and white? What did you think when you saw Eve for the first time? When did you kiss her?
What was your home in Paradise like? Do you miss it? Do you really believe you will live there again? What is God like? How can we walk with God now?
- Methuselah was raised in a God-loving home by a dad who walked with God every day. He was the son of Enoch, who “walked with God” and was taken to heaven without dying. That is a description of what it means to “follow Jesus.”
- He was Noah’s grandfather, the man God chose to preserve humanity through the Flood. Noah’s family tree included Adam, Enoch, and Methuselah who all walked with God in this world. Noah learned how to listen to and obey the Lord of Creation.
- Abraham knew and possibly lived with Noah. Historical and biblical accounts suggest that Noah, Shem, and Abraham lived contemporaneously for a period of about thirty-nine years. This proximity would have allowed Abraham to receive firsthand accounts of early creation, Enock’s walks with God, and the flood (Adam to Methuselah to Noah to Abraham).
- Scripture implies Methuselah died just before or in the year of the Flood, making his death a marker in biblical history. Can you imagine his interest in the Ark? Do you think he checked the boat building progress?
Methuselah had lived over nine hundred years without ever seeing a big boat on dry land. So much for people saying there is nothing new to see and do as you get older.
Can you imagine the importance of his encouragement to Noah to remain steadfast in faith and courage amidst the mockery and hatred of a rebellious self-centered culture?
“The Creator God has a purpose for your life. Faith in God is the ark that will keep your heart afloat in the storms of life. Be humble and walk with your God. As you age, take kindness into your new world. Love God and love others.”
Can you imagine the emotions of this oldest man as he wrestled with the thoughts of Paradise Lost as God walked disobedient but forgiven Adam into a new land? His mind also shared the thoughts of God taking one disobedient but forgiven man out into a new world on an ark?
Can you imagine his prayers of hope for Noah? Can you imagine his anticipation of reuniting with his dad and greatest grandfather Adam in the New Paradise?
- Methuselah lived a life that summarizes how the #1 Textbook teaches each of us to live each day of this earthly life no matter how young we are or how old we become: TRUST GOD.
If Methuselah were to duplicate that lifespan today, it would cover over nine centuries. Can you even get a grasp of the amount of history of which he would have firsthand experience? What about the wisdom he could share?
His pre-flood history can be summarized in two words: TRUST GOD.
If he had lived post-flood or even now, his old-age wisdom would be TRUST GOD.
Trust God. God is enough. God is enough security and riches for those who survived the loss of Paradise. God is enough security and riches for those who floated into a new world on an Ark. God is enough security and riches for anyone who follows Jesus, even if they lose the whole world.
In any time of great uncertainty, the counsel of an older person who has proven God’s faithfulness is of immense value to those facing new challenges in life. TRUST GOD. God is enough.
That is my getting older message for any and all Winsday Wisdoms. TRUST GOD.
No one really told me how to prepare for getting older. Well, if they did, I ignored them because they were so old.
Aging is weird. My memory must be improving because I now remember things that never happened; but the other day, my memory foam mattress forgot who I was.
Things change as you get older. My doctor advises me to slow down. That warning used to come from the highway patrol.
I have come to the age where my family just puts one candle on the cake and hopes that I can blow it out. My cell phone is becoming useless. The facial ID no longer recognizes my face, and I cannot remember the password.
Even my doctor talks to me like my body is an old high-mileage car. He suggests it is not worth putting any more money into it.
My memory storehouse is starting to look like our attic. It is all important, but I do not remember all that is in there.
The key to remembering the precious things as you get older is…..
What was I saying? Can you turn up the TV remote?
Getting older comes with less baggage. Lots of the toys, trivia, and trash are gone. Most of the fading treasure has lost its glitter. There is only so much room–and only so much time–for what truly matters in these last earthly days and into the everlasting tomorrows.
Getting old is not for sissies. It gets harder. It hurts. Sometimes it takes away health and things we took for granted; but old age cannot ever take away true happiness.
Do not miss this gem. Whatever age you are, life is short. It flies by too fast. If anything, the years speed up.
As cancer victim Coach Jim Valvano declared, “There are three things to do every day. Number one is LAUGH. Number two is to THINK…give some time to thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, you think, and you CRY, that is a full day.”
I believe Methuselah had a lot of full days.
Here is the “getting older” quote that rattled my cage. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
I do dream! Where hope surges, happiness is not far behind.
I hope you catch a new dream this week that will cause you to smile.
Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Live life TODAY, not Tomorrow, not Yesterday. TODAY.
Say the words, “I love you” to those you love TODAY. That never gets old!
