Our society is anti-life both at its very beginning and at its very end.
Randy Alcorn, whom I’ve blogged about, has written a thoughtful post entitled God’s Heart for the Elderly and the Infirm. Because my mother died recently and because I’m getting old myself, what he had to say really stood out for me.
He began with this point:
One of the many problems facing Western society is that we worship youth and make the elderly disposable. Euthanasia, which is legal in my home state of Oregon, is simply abortion of the elderly, disabled, and terminally ill. The same logic and arguments and appeals to “compassion” and quality of life and financial concerns are used for both [abortion and euthanasia].
God, though, has a different perspective. Alcorn quoted and discussed a number of Bible passages that we “elderlies” (a term I heard one of my grandchildren use in reference to me and my generation) should hang on to. Here is one:
The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green. (Psalm 92:12-14)
“Ever full of sap”! But what fruit can an old person bear? Alcorn says,
Our physical and mental abilities can and will decrease over time, but may we as God’s children never feel useless. We can always pray, and we can usually speak and mentor and reach out in the name of Jesus, and show the love of Christ and the wisdom of having invested our lives in Him.
I would add, though, that being “useful” is not really the point. To value life–that of others, as well as our own–for how “useful” they are or I am is to succumb to the philosophy of utilitarianism, which is in accord neither with Christianity or with logic. Some things are useful; that is, they are good for instrumental reasons, because they lead to other good things. But some things are good in themselves and are to be valued as such. In fact, instrumental goods require something to be good in itself, as the end to which they aim. In other words, when we hear the invocation of “useful,” we have to ask, “useful to do what?” (E.g., “I am useful because I can earn money.” But what’s money useful for? “So I can buy what I need to live.” But what’s living useful for? Or is life good in itself?)
But I appreciate what Alcorn says about the benefit that the very aged can be at the very end of their lives when they are at their weakest and most frail: “God uses waning health and vitality. . . to increase impact on others who benefit by caring for the elderly (my father and I gained a much closer relationship in his final years, when he needed my help).” Caring for the helpless elderly is like caring for a helpless child. It is good for the person who does it. The weakness of the person in need of care can create compassion and thus love in the caregiver, however painful the service and however agonizing the Cross laid upon the caregiver turns out to be.
Alcorn also sees a benefit for those in need of care in “preparing the sick and elderly for Heaven. It is easier to let go of this world when there is no realistic hope that our health will improve, but only get worse. Now the whispers of Heaven become glad shouts of invitation.”
Here is my favorite passage on the subject:
“Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from before your birth,
carried from the womb;
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 46:3-6)
We have been carried by God even before we were born! From the womb! So much for the claim that children are not human before birth. And he continues to carry us for our whole lives. “Even to your old age”! When we have “gray hairs I will carry you.” He will carry us, and He will also save.
Photo by Sh-Andrei: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photograph-of-an-elderly-man-kissing-an-elderly-woman-8884105/
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