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To My Old Age and Gray Hairs

             Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4)

This isn’t something I think about a lot, but Biblegateway.com suggested this verse today. It combines one of my realities and one of my fears. I’m getting older. My grandmother, my aunt, and my father all developed some form of dementia. My grandfather and mother got cancer, and my grandfather, grandmother, and father all had heart problems. Something else they had in common was that they had children.

Some folks claim I’m single by choice, and to a certain extent, that’s true. I didn’t go out there and try to find someone. My standards were too high. Whatever. The point is that I am single, and the idea of imposing on hapless relative someday, or moving into a place where my whole living quarters would fit in my kitchen…let’s just say that the prospect is less than pleasant.

Years ago, I prayed about the situation from a different vantage point. I was single, so, “OK, Lord, show the world what You can do in and through the life of a single woman.”  I should still be praying that prayer,

But, as I said, I don’t think too much about this issue until something brings it to mind, like today’s passage. It’s a valid concern, a realistic consideration. And today’s verse is one that I need to drive deep into my mind and heart, so that when the fears and concerns do come to mind, or the thing feared approaches, I can call on it.

Even to my old age and gray hairs, He is God. He is the One who will sustain me. He made me and He will carry me; He will sustain me and rescue me. At its most dramatic, He will take me from some prison cell (or nursing home bed) where I’ve spent the last several years with no clue where I was, who I was, etc., and take me home – His daughter rescued from the dungeons of dementia, or from the concentration camp of the state – whether political of geriatric. Or He will rescue me from a fulfilling life as a novelist and poverty that the world thinks great riches, to welcome me home. 

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