Even as You Age

Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.  – Isaiah 46:4  

Alice became enamored with the notion of flying when, as an early teen, she went to a “barnstorming” demonstration featuring aerial trickery and skill in the skies. She managed to persuade her father to allow her to learn to fly. During World War II, she put her talents to work in the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, ferrying U.S. aircraft from the U.S. to Southern England, then taking a ship back to the States and doing it all again. Alice died two years ago at age 102. 

Pete, who just turned 100 last Christmas season, was almost 16 when he joined the Navy. He spent World War II aboard a destroyer in the South Pacific. Afterward, on the G.I. bill, he began studying engineering when he was notified that he qualified for completing his education at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. During the Korean War, he deployed aboard a carrier strike group off Inchon. At war’s end, the worked for a number of years for the Defense Department. 

While Alice grew up in a Christian home, Pete did not. However, he claims that values instilled in him by the military and, to a degree by his mother, kept him on the “straight and narrow.” He was in his mid-90s, when someone pointed out to him today’s verse from Isaiah and he received the free grace of salvation in Jesus Christ. Both of them ultimately gave the Lord the acknowledgment He claimed for Himself: those who are fortunate enough to attain the grey hairs of old life, owe their protection across the century to the Lord. 

No matter your age, theologian Matthew Henry says that the Lord will also deliver you out of all affliction, out of every temptation, out of your enemies, and protect you even in death from eternal wrath to come. As the lyrics from “In Christ Alone My Hope is Found,” you declare that He is your light, your strength, your song, from life’s first cry to final breath.” 

Pray for the men and women who are serving in America’s Defense Department and Armed Forces. Remember, too, those who are part of “America’s Greatest Generation,” as they prepare for their final destiny.