Thursday, 24 April 2008

Age a blessing?

We celebrated one of our church member's 100th birthday this week. Churches sometimes beat themselves up over having such a high average age, but hey : a 100-year old pushes the average up a bit!

I was struck how in Isaiah 65:17ff old age is seen as a sign of blessing, and that when the 'kingdom' fully comes, people who die younger than that will be deemed unlucky. Not that old age isn't a real struggle for many : but that our society is such that people can live to that age is something to give thanks for. What's the average life expectancy in Zimbabwe? Under 40, isn't it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Two points: firstly, less younger people are going to church these days, which pushes up the average age of churchgoers and secondly, age might not always be a blessing if you are in poor physical or mental health plus most of your family and friends of your youth are dead. What are other people's thoughts on this?