A L M A C I A S

OLD AGE IS INESCAPABLE

It seems that sometimes we come to think that those whom we love will never get old but they do. I remember as I was growing up that I was one who believed that my parents would never become old like my grandparents, but they did. Sometimes we also come to believe that we will never grow old, but we do. In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon wrote some things for all of us to ponder about our old age. We read in Ecclesiastes 12:1, "Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." Here we have a great lesson from King Solomon in regard to old age. One thing we all can learn from this passage of Scripture is that we must make the most of our time while we are young. None of us will remain young forever. Some of the young will never grow to be old, for death will come their way even in their youth. How many young people have we known who died at a very early age from some terminal disease or perhaps in an accident of some kind? No, we all must accept the fact that no one is exempt from death, and that includes the very young.

Another lesson that we can learn from what King Solomon said in this passage is that it is when we are young that we have more to offer to the Lord. There is so much the young can do that those of us who are not so young anymore can do no longer. The young have so much energy and strength that they could use for the glory of God. We see this in preaching schools when young men come to us to learn to be preachers of the Gospel. It is good to be around all of these young men and help them in one way or another to develop their skills in the preaching of the Gospel. I, as an instructor in a preaching school, receive great satisfaction from contributing, at least in a small way, toward helping these young men who have much to offer, to remember their Creator during their youth.

Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12:1 that we are to remember our Creator in our youth,"while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh." What was Solomon referring to when he said this? Solomon understood, as many of us do, that as we get older, problems will come our way. Our health will no longer be what it used to be. Our energy and strength will diminish; and for some of us, this will take away the pleasure we once knew when we were young. As we get older, we begin to realize what we should have realized all along, and that is that none of us can live forever, at least in this world. We begin to look at life differently than when we were young, in that now we are pleased just to be able to get out of bed one more day; and if our health is somewhat good, so much the better! If we have been doing our best, we will feel good about ourselves, in that we did take advantage of our younger years in the service of the Lord. Are we remembering our Creator in the days of our youth?