Emma Morano died and we lost our link to the 19th century. Emma, born in November of 1899, was 117 years and 137 days old when she died recently at her home in Italy. According to a group that keeps track of these statistics, the oldest person on earth today is a Jamaican women who was born in March of 1900. She's 117 also but more than the 'oldest person' baton was passed.
How many years does the Bible consider a generation to be...20...40...70...100? Today we label generations by outside influences upon them and characteristics that they may have developed. So I'm a baby boomer. Our son just yesterday visited Arlington National Cemetery where he took a picture of him and his newly born son at my son's grandfather's, my grandson's great-grandfather's, and my father's, grave. So, represented in the picture was the greatest generation, the millennial generation and an as yet unnamed generation.
Luke Martin Jr. died in January of 2015. I wrote a post on his death back then because his father was an escaped slave who was born in the year the Alamo was fought and he served in the Union army in the Civil War. To me he represented an amazing connection to America's heritage. Why don't they write news stories on people such as Emma Morano and Luke Martin Jr. before they die? Well I guess that they do but the stories don't make national headlines until they are in the past tense. I would have liked to have written to Mr. Martin but probably wouldn't have had the courage to.
A friend took a picture of me today firing a handgun at a shooting range. When I saw it I thought...man that guy looks old... but the concept of old age is marvelous, beautiful and very instructive if we will let it be. It's marvelous in that God is so faithful to take one through so many years in this world of wars, violence and many illnesses. It's beautiful in that every single day and every single age wrinkle, ache and pain point to one day closer to standing before Jesus Christ in all His glory!
Old age is instructive in that God did not design man to age. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics points to the eventual decay of...everything. Adam was not created to decay....the fall accomplished that, and man's body will thus continue to age in spite of what some celebrated business moguls claim to be overturning.
Which brings me to two beautiful words....born again! The modern church has marred this amazing grace in salvation. Today we only have to live fairly honestly, attest to a belief in God without actually being attentive to His commands and directions, and attend a church of our choosing according to our own desires on who God is.
Being 'born again' is actually a wrenching strain in our lives at the very least where we discover that we were lost...and then we were found....we were dead....and now we are alive....and that the Bible was a book...albeit an important book....and now it is recognized as the actual transforming Word of God! The body will continue to decay but the spirit is not only alive but growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Yes, the picture of me today looked old but within that decaying body lives a soul regenerated, a mind that can praise its creator and redeemer, and a once forlorn soul that through absolutely no credit of its own it will eventually transcend time as we know it and experience an eternal existence in adoration of a Triune God of whom we will fully understand in God's due time.
How many years does the Bible consider a generation to be...20...40...70...100? Today we label generations by outside influences upon them and characteristics that they may have developed. So I'm a baby boomer. Our son just yesterday visited Arlington National Cemetery where he took a picture of him and his newly born son at my son's grandfather's, my grandson's great-grandfather's, and my father's, grave. So, represented in the picture was the greatest generation, the millennial generation and an as yet unnamed generation.
Luke Martin Jr. died in January of 2015. I wrote a post on his death back then because his father was an escaped slave who was born in the year the Alamo was fought and he served in the Union army in the Civil War. To me he represented an amazing connection to America's heritage. Why don't they write news stories on people such as Emma Morano and Luke Martin Jr. before they die? Well I guess that they do but the stories don't make national headlines until they are in the past tense. I would have liked to have written to Mr. Martin but probably wouldn't have had the courage to.
A friend took a picture of me today firing a handgun at a shooting range. When I saw it I thought...man that guy looks old... but the concept of old age is marvelous, beautiful and very instructive if we will let it be. It's marvelous in that God is so faithful to take one through so many years in this world of wars, violence and many illnesses. It's beautiful in that every single day and every single age wrinkle, ache and pain point to one day closer to standing before Jesus Christ in all His glory!
Old age is instructive in that God did not design man to age. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics points to the eventual decay of...everything. Adam was not created to decay....the fall accomplished that, and man's body will thus continue to age in spite of what some celebrated business moguls claim to be overturning.
Which brings me to two beautiful words....born again! The modern church has marred this amazing grace in salvation. Today we only have to live fairly honestly, attest to a belief in God without actually being attentive to His commands and directions, and attend a church of our choosing according to our own desires on who God is.
Being 'born again' is actually a wrenching strain in our lives at the very least where we discover that we were lost...and then we were found....we were dead....and now we are alive....and that the Bible was a book...albeit an important book....and now it is recognized as the actual transforming Word of God! The body will continue to decay but the spirit is not only alive but growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Yes, the picture of me today looked old but within that decaying body lives a soul regenerated, a mind that can praise its creator and redeemer, and a once forlorn soul that through absolutely no credit of its own it will eventually transcend time as we know it and experience an eternal existence in adoration of a Triune God of whom we will fully understand in God's due time.
