84 YEARS YOUNG!

“And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years (NOTE: that’s 84 years), which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.” (Luke 2:37)

This week, most of us will hear the EARLIER part of Luke chapter 2 read as we celebrate Christmas. I will, in fact, be reading from the early part of Luke 2 at our church’s Christmas Eve service tonight. Later in the chapter, it speaks of Jesus’ circumcision, and Mary’s purification (after giving birth) AND of two elderly people that Mary, Joseph, (and baby Jesus!) encountered at the temple in Jerusalem. The above verse is about one of those two elderly people: Anna the prophetess who was 84-years-old.

It’s kind of ironic that in the last posting (about visiting the “Natick Collection”) I wrote that although I’m 54, the experience of going to a big confusing mall was somewhat overwhelming and I was following Rachel around like an 84-year-old! I guess the image I have of an 84-year-old is some really elderly person collapsed in a chair in a nursing home and ready to die. That image, like any stereotype, can be quite unfair.

This week, I went to the local hospital to visit the husband of one of our church members. SHE is in her late sixties. I did not remember meeting her husband (I guess I DID at one time but I can’t remember it) but I knew he was MUCH older than she is. Upon entering his room, I expected to see something like I described in the above paragraph. Boy, WAS I WRONG?! This guy, despite his recent health problems, looked like he was MAYBE 72. In fact, he told me he is 84. I would NEVER have believed it. I frankly told him I thought he looked more like 72 than 84, and that I thought despite the fact that he’d been ill, that he really looked good. I think that brightened his day. (It would certainly have brightened mine if I were elderly and ill!) We had a nice visit. I shared some Scripture with him and prayed for him, for which he was grateful. We also exchanged small talk. My own father at 77 (the age of his passing) looked SO MUCH OLDER than this guy.

The patient has actually had a lot of health issues in his life, but it was obvious that he’s a guy who loves life and lives it to the fullest. He’s also a guy who did blue collar work all his life. I’d guess he thinks of himself as about 55 and that’s how he acts. I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that. I have a friend who is only about sixty who tends to think of himself as very old and tends to ACT very old. (It’s NOT someone from my church, nor is it someone most of my readers would know!) THAT 60-year-old is a great guy, but I think he THINKS like a 75-year-old.

Many of you know that (naturally speaking) I can really struggle with depression and irritability. I am aware of how UNHEALTHY that kind of thinking is! For me, that “stinkin’ thinkin’” can be every bit as much of a battle as whiskey can be for an alcoholic. Today, on “Christmas Eve Day” I took a long afternoon walk. My feel got SOAKED! My sneakers and socks are on one of our old house’s heating system registers drying! The walk was GOOD for me, though! It was a great time of thinking and praying! And, it tripped off this posting.

Often on hospital visits, I get far more from the patient I see than he or she gets from me. That was the case this week! This 84-year-old guy really kind of inspired me. Here he was in the hospital on Christmas week, but he was quite friendly and cheerful...and YOUNG in his thinking! This guy really gave me a gift on Christmas week!

I’m sure some of you are programmed (like I am) to “see the glass half empty”. Well, this guy was really used by God to kind of give me a kick in the posterior and “see the glass as half full” - and see light instead of darkness.

Didn’t Jesus come to bring LIGHT into DARKNESS? (Well, according to John’s Gospel, yes he DID!)

This is not a traditional Christmas kind of piece, but I hope it somehow blessed you!