Being around the elderly has helped me to understand more clearly the challenges of old age. When we were infants, we needed; when we were children, we wanted; when we were young adults, we were wanted; when we were adults, we were needed. But when God has allowed us to pass through all those seasons into old age, it is common that we are no longer wanted and no longer needed as we once were. Spouses are gone and children are busy taking care of their own children and lives. It is then that the relationship which should have mattered most can keep us “alive.” “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” When all others have left, when their faces are but a fading memory – our Eternal Refuge remains. He wants us to look upon His face with joy, He waits to receive our offerings of love and praise and trust. We can still give to the one who never ceases to yearn for our love.
And even if we should come to a place in our old age when we don’t know where we are, who we are and even who He is; if He has been our hope and our trust and our “home” through life, He will sustain us and watch over us till the end.
“For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels” (Psalm 71:5,6)
As He cared for us in our first “home,” which was our mother’s womb, where we were certainly unaware of where we were, He will care for us when we are old and unable to comprehend our surroundings. And when He takes us out of the confines of this life, and its mortal bonds, it will be to enter into a far more glorious life than the one He brought us into long ago. There at last we will be “Home” indeed, because our home was always in His presence.