The contrast between how we think and how the Bible presents aging is like emerging from a tunnel into sunlight. We don’t like to talk about it, because Americans view life like a Bell curve – you go up, up, up to the age of 50 and then you go down, down, down till you die. This views claims, “Life is accomplishing things. Life is looking good and feeling good.”
The Bible, however, treats old age as a blessing (except for Ecclesiastes 12, perhaps). Old age is not a problem and to die “full of years” is the fondest wish. Zechariah’s dream has Jerusalem filled with the elderly. Other ancient societies were not as optimistic. The meaning of life is to glorify God, to love and to pray, and the elderly can do this as well as anyone.
God doesn’t make mistakes. He intends people to grow old, if only so that they can learn what life is, and what life is not. Old ages teaches that life is not doing things, even great things for God. Life is not activity and good looks. Life is not a Bell curve, but a continuous climb toward heaven. One old person put it, “They say we are going downhill, but they have it wrong. It is uphill. That’s why it is such hard work!”