STARTING OVER
Don’t you just hate it when you thought you were done with something, only to realize that you have to go back and start all over again? It can try one’s patience to be sure, and borders on being downright maddening. I got to thinking about starting all over again, when I saw a young mother trying to corral her two small children into the back seat of the family’s SUV. I thought to myself, “I’m sure glad I don’t have to go back and start to raise my kids again!” Suddenly I realized I was sounding really old and codger like, and that many people my age (and older) have started over again, as circumstances have forced them to raise their grandchildren.
Our culture basically tells us that we work until 65 or so, then spend the next ten or so years enjoying life, before moving to a retirement home at 75 or 80 years of age. Clearly it is not a time to think about starting over again. However, maybe we shouldn’t be so hasty, consider that Abraham was 75 when God called upon him to in essence start over again. “Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house to the land which I will show you.” (Gen. 12:1). God had tremendous things in store for Abraham and his wife. He was promised that he would father a great nation, land and that all families would be blessed as a result of his seed (Gen. 12:2-3, 22:16-18). His life’s work had only begun when he was 75.
“The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” (Psalms 92:12-15)
There are some interesting thoughts expressed in the passage above. Not the least of which is seen in describing the individual from the standpoint of a palm and cedar tree. Both of which take a considerable amount of time to grow.