A Period at the End.

A Period at the End.



It isn’t easy when we are faced with the realization that we have more past behind us, than future before us.  Aging however, is a progressive disease that affects all of us. From the moment we are born, we start the aging process.  When we are young, age does not matter so much.  We always figure we have many more years to go, before we have to face illness, retirement, wrinkles and sagging bodies.  However, as the years pass and the end is eminent there is a season when we stop to take inventory as it were.



This is a good thing, for it gives us time to reflect and reminisce. To take a long look at the times of refreshing when we had a good laugh or we overcame with the help of the Lord, a sickness or a trial.  We may even recall the happy times when we took our children on vacation or to the park.  We may remember the laughter that came from their room or around the table at mealtime; the many times we were the taxi – getting four kids to four different places the same afternoon, and yet getting them there on time; always wondering how we did it? Juggling our schedule so that we could attend every function, they were involved in, and yet still have time for a picnic at the park.



The awareness of the aging years, should affords us the time to talk things over with or spouse or a friend, someone who would understand the good times and bad. Someone who will help us with our perspective of things, in case our memory is distorted, also aid in preparation to mend the bad times; someone who can take part in repairs we find necessary to be done, purposing in our heart to repair all the broken pieces of our life and even to make peace with ourselves and others.

The aging years allow us to go places we always desired to go, but could not for one reason or another.  We start to live and appreciate life in a deeper way.



The feel of your mate’s hand holding yours.

The feeling of security when he is in the bed next to you.

The feeling that comes with knowing your children will be all right.

The feel of a grandchild’s skin as it lies in your arms, and you look at the plump little angelic face of purity.

A walk in a garden of flowers, or even watching those we’ve planted, grow and bloom.

A mini trip to see an old friend.

A short call from a son or daughter that calls for no other reason than they were thinking of you.



Or the love of a grandchild that doesn’t see your wrinkles or your age, only a person he/she loves for one reason or another.

Little things that have been taken for granted before seem to mount with importance as age takes it course. 



Remembering the good times in our life is a good thing.  The time when the clock seemed to stand still for a moment so that the event would be pressed into our mind for eternity.  Laying just beneath the surface of our heart waiting for a time when recall is so much needed;  needing to look back on the years and laugh a little or recall a pleasant and precious moment.



I must have been feeling spiritual that day; I talked my two little sisters into helping me with a project.  We were at Grandma’s house where mother did her weekly wash, where there was plenty of water.



The spring branch ran from under the bluff, and flowed down a short distance into the creek.  While Mother went about washing the dirt and grime from our clothes, we stayed busy doing what most little girls would do.  Well, maybe our case was different, but that is how my story begins.



Grandma was known for having several families of cats.  All lived out side of course, and they were forever at our feet.  I don’t know what possessed me, but I decided the day was pretty enough, the water the right temperature and I had everything I needed.



“Let’s have a baptizing!” I announced to my two accomplices who were game for anything I came up with. 



“OK”, my little sisters said in unison.  They had been to a baptizing, we all had.  We were churchgoers, and lived before the day of baptismal pools inside the church.  Therefore, when sinners turned saints, the next step was to go to a nearby creek and baptize them to seal their salvation.  That is the way I understood it anyway.



Off they trotted on their errand, and shortly came back with a cat in each arm.  Well I wasn’t planning on baptizing four, but whatever.



I didn’t have to pull off my shoes; I was barefoot anyway, so I stepped into the branch at the edge of the creek where the water was a little more than ankle deep.  While they stood on the bank holding our candidates for baptism, we sang a song,(probably “Shall we gather at the river”) and I offered a prayer.  The girls stood by in obedience and waited for me to proceed. 



The older of the two held one of her cats over the water to my waiting hands.  I positioned my hand just right, lightly around the cat’s neck, and said the proper words “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I baptize you” I don’t remember giving him a name, but to make it realistic, I probably did.  I forced the cat down into the water and waited.  I thought that was what I was supposed to do, so while my little sisters looked on, I held him under.  He squirmed some, but shortly I turned loose.  I expected the cat to come up shaking off the excess water and run for his life, but instead I stood watching my good intentions float on down the branch into the creek. 



For several minutes, we all stood with mouths open in horror that something had gone wrong.  We made a pact not to tell anyone, and kept that promise until time made young women out of us, and we forgot we promised not to tell.



Fondly remembering this brings laughter as we look back now.  I’m reminded of the baptizing each time I go to the old home place. Now no one wants me to have cats!    This is one of those precious childhood memories that remain with us as though the clock stood still for a moment so that it would be planted on our mind to be recalled 50 years later!

         

However, when something clouds what could be precious memories, it makes reminiscing painful. 

         

Often the aging process reminds us of all the poor decisions, the “what might have been” times in our life.  Often every good memory goes out the window.  As a rule, when we get older it seems all the bad times were not so bad and the good comes to the surface.  That is not always so however for...

         

There are those who remember only the bad times.  There is nothing sadder than to meet an aging person that is dying inside from an emotional hurt or disappointment they cannot move past. I’ve met people who were a mere monument of nothing, because life with its trials had hardened them or it may have been an event from life. When old wounds heal, good memories are then restored. 

         

In delivering “Meals on Wheels” I encountered the elderly weekly.  It isn’t difficult to find those from each end of the spectrum.  Many are content to take what they have now in comparison to what they once had, and be happy.  On the other hand there are those who are still bitter that not even a “thank you” comes from their lips as I hand them their meal. It was easy for me to talk with them, and offer prayer or conversation. One lady recalled how her mother neglected her. The neglected child was still hurt and broken. For whatever happened that the mother was absent in mind or body, a child grows into an adult unable to accept and receive love, a story that repeats itself more than we know. 

         

She remembers verbal abuse.  Her self-esteem is very poor. 



The rejection she felt then has carried over into her aging years and has zapped her of the abundant life that is supposed to be hers.  The anger and un-forgiveness toward that mother shows in what she says, in what she does, in her posture, etc.

           

It is so vitally important to go into our golden years having shed every weight of guilt, anger, un-forgiveness etc. Carrying excess baggage can break a back all right, but it hinders us spiritually as well.

         

Most of the people I delivered to are not well.  Age brings with it weakness and broken bodies, which is just part of the aging process.    In addition, should my friend find it in her heart to forgive all the offences from life; her sickness may not go away, but the heaviness of her heart would lighten.  I believe laughter would return, and the medicine of laughter is freedom. 

“A merry heart is good like a medicine”. Proverbs 17:22 says.  Isn’t freedom the result of what we long for? Could she only forgive, lay it down, her spiritual  clock that stopped so long ago, surely would start running again helping her to move on with  what precious time she has left.  Surely the pleasant memories would surface again, maybe a grateful heart for the good days she did have would speed the process of healing her painful memories.  For looking back only cripples us.  If our memories are only unpleasant painful ones, looking back causes us to stumble, and keep hurting our self.



Naturally, the God of mercies does not give us information as to when our time to leave this life will be, but the aging process gives us a good signal that life as we know it will end. 



For those who were humiliated and remember it vividly, there is help.

For those who cannot get past the hurt of a bad decision that had lasting consequences, there is hope.

For those who were teased relentlessly     

For those who were molested or abused and no one came to the rescue, the Lord was there.

For those who were called dumb, or stupid and would not amount to anything in life, it is not so.

For those who do not feel worthy for any good in life; 

For those who cannot get over the loss of a child;

For those who still feel the pain of rejection,

For those who grew up without knowing the love of a parent because of being forced to live in foster homes,

For those who were molested by a father, brother or relative - Even though it is a most devastating experience to a young spirit, God allows us to bring our broken self, our wounded heart, and our lost years to Him. 

There is a God of Love who is ready to walk back with you to that point of time and erase the pain.  He doesn’t take the memory necessarily, but He takes the sting of pain away.  Pain that causes us to miss the NOW’s, the present times, where God is trying to do a work in us–He is ready to bring life back into a once lifeless soul.  He wants you to go from here, forget those things that are behind and be refreshed now and tomorrow for God has plans for you.



“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”  John 10:10 (KJV)

         

It is the enemy, the thief, the devil’s desire to kill God’s purpose in our life or keep us from learning of the Destiny He has planned.  He uses events, parents, siblings, - situations and people from every walk of our life, to meet his purpose of keeping us defeated.

         

It seems the enemy has a recording that he plays over and over again in the mind of that one who cannot get past the hurt.  There is no way to forget or even forgive when it is played constantly in our spiritual ears.  Healing can’t take place when it is rehearsed over and again. 



However, Jesus came to give us abundant life, a life of substance, a life of accomplishment, a life that blesses others.  A life that has a period at the end; Or better still, an exclamation mark.



The First book of Samuel, the 12th chapter, shows us that Samuel was one of those with a period at the end of his life.  Samuel was the one whose mother dedicated him to the Lord and after weaning him took him to the Temple to live as she had promised.  We see him from his birth to his death and some in between.  Just because he lived in the house of God however, did not make him less human.  We see the good he did, we see the anointing on his life, and how he was used mightily by the Lord, but we also see him examining his life as he grew older. 



On the day of Saul’s inauguration Samuel stood before the people giving his farewell address.  He introduced King Saul to them.  “Behold the king walks before you, and I am old and gray headed”.



He had no trouble reviewing his life in public, as an open book to the people before whom he had lived and served.   



“Now tell me,” he said, “as I stand before the Lord and before His anointed one—whose ox or donkey have I stolen? Have I ever cheated any of you? Have I ever oppressed you? Have I ever taken a bribe? Tell me and I will make right whatever I have done wrong."



"No," they replied, "you have never cheated or oppressed us in any way, and you have never taken even a single bribe."  I Samuel 12:3-4 NLT



He said I have been with you since childhood; I have lived before you without blame.  There was no time in his life that could make him look back in regret or shame.  He could go on in purpose toward his death without looking back. Even though he was not aware of anything damageable or hurtful, he laid his life out as an open book to be examined or read, and even the people of Israel acclaimed that "Yes", he had been blameless in their eyes also.  Equally so, he had no ill will against anyone he had encountered over the years. 



Yes at the end of his life, there was a period.  Or maybe an exclamation point.  That is what I want. I want that for you. What a testimony!