Nearing Home - Billy Graham [30]
WHEN YOUTH FADES
“Birthdays are good for you,” someone said. “Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.” A reply came, “Looking fifty is great—if you are sixty!” It is all perspective. Children look at their thirty-year-old parents as old, their grandparents as ancient. Grandparents look at their children and grandchildren as forever young. Yet children are always pushing their young age up as fast as they can. Ask a child how old he or she is. The answer will always end with “and a half.” A ten-year-old can’t wait to be twelve. The twelve-year-old wants to be a teenager. The teenager wants to be old enough to get married. Couples are anxious to marry their children off so they can become grandparents. When they get to the grandparent stage, they begin complaining about being too old.
Our society is made up of obsessive contradictions: the young want to be rewarded with big jobs without obtaining experience, the middle-aged brag about working out at the gym but can’t wait to retire in order to rest, and the old want to drink from the fountain of youth. The truth is that instant success robs young people of the journey; but it is along the journey that we obtain knowledge, collect memories, and have a sense of achievement that makes life a rewarding experience. And older people are often deceived by miracle drugs and creams promising renewed beauty and vigor. Juan Ponce de León, the Spanish explorer who traveled at one time with Christopher Columbus, went in search of a magic water source that people called the Fountain of Youth. Rumor had it that drinking its waters would keep one young. Ponce de León was determined to find this legendary fountain; instead he found Florida—what became America’s retirement haven. How many couples have packed their belongings, pulled up roots, and left home and family to set up housekeeping in a condo on a Florida golf course—with a nursing home across the fairway?
A plastic surgeon in the Sunshine State named his private practice Fountain of Youth Institute, but according to a recent report by Scientific American, the Fountain of Youth is a myth. It reports, “The prospect of immortality has always had universal appeal.” The article includes a position statement containing this warning: “No currently marketed intervention—none—has yet been proved to slow, stop or reverse human aging.”1
I am reminded of a young teenager who pulled up a chair beside his grandfather and said, “Poppy, the wrinkles on your face are starting to cover up the scar you are so proud of!” The wise grandfather smiled, patted the boy on the back, and said, “Son, scars, wrinkles, and rusty bones have lots of stories to tell.” That afternoon, the grandson learned about his heritage. A few years later, he enlisted in the United States military. When asked why, he replied, “I want to earn my scars and wrinkles like my grandfather did.”
The world’s idea of a fountain of youth is a mirage. Only the Bible provides an oasis for the soul: “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life” (Proverbs 14:27). To grasp the meaning of this verse, we must first understand what “fear of the LORD” means. It is contrary to being afraid of Him. God would not have sent His Son to earth to communicate with us if He wanted humanity to be fearful of approaching Him. This wonderful phrase throughout Scripture is a reminder to be in reverential awe of God, to love Him with our whole being and commit ourselves joyfully to Him in all things: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV). The apostle John said it this way: “Keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts” (1 John 5:21 NLT).
Here we see a wonderful picture of a fountain that flows with life-giving blessings: “For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see” (Psalm 36:9 NLT); “The words of the godly are a life-giving fountain” (Proverbs 10:11 NLT); “The instruction of the wise is like a life-giving fountain