Some four or five years ago during a sojourn in Singapore (alliteration not to be missed, please!), I was browsing through a church magazine on a Sunday when I first spotted this term: Sandwich Generation.
It was evocative!
I realized that I too belong in that category. With increasing life expectancy, we have parents to care for on the one side, and children to nurture on the other, at least until the latter en masse settle in the United States of America!
Until that point of time, we are sandwiched, with little room for maneuver. And after that, we worry as to who will care for us when our time comes. For with no support on one side the sandwich turns precarious!
Time to vigorously browse the Bible in search of some comforting verses, and as usual Isaiah with his 66 chapters pops up first, alongside the Psalms. In fact, Isaiah 46: 4 seems to be written with us in mind:
Even to your old age, I am He,
And even to gray hairs I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear.
Even I will carry and will deliver you.
that is God speaking. Yea!
You can be sure that the Book of Psalms with its vast arsenal of weapons to encounter practically every conceivable situation, has something to say about the “Old Age” matter. For instance, David’s plea in Psalm 71 resonates with us strongly:
17 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
18 Now also when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come.
But this seems to have some riders attached: “hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works” and ” until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come.” We start worrying if we could really appropriate these supplications as our own. Which of course is good, for it makes us examine ourselves and the role we have played in the Kingdom of God.
And if our honest admission brings us up short on these issues, it is time to address our failures. And when we do that effectively, we have no difficulty in echoing the promise found in Psalm 92: 14-15:
“They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
And how can I forget Psalm 103? While not belittling the brevity of life, it offers hope for old age:
Talking about the Lord, it calls for us to bless Him
There are not very many persons in the Bible, whose story we know from birth to death. Moses is one such who strides through the Torah. As he nears the end of his life’s journey the description goes (Deuteronomy 34:7):
Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim, nor his natural vigor diminished.
He was a colossus yet a humble servant of God, the meekest of all men on earth. In the famous 90th Psalm that he wrote, he sketches the eternal nature of God, man’s waywardness, his propensity for sin and the length of his life, before sagely asking the Lord (v. 12):
teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
You might like to sing along with Aaron Shust: