ART & INSPIRATION BY PAUL & KATHY BOECHER

There’s something about a tree.  When it grows old it has gained great stature.  It has reached towards heaven and branched out in many directions.  The circles on its trunk indicate how many years it has endured.  People on the other hand, usually lose their height as they age.  They bend differently than they did 40 years ago.  They aren’t as resilient and the circles around their girth indicate that they’ve overindulged for too long. I refuse to let my age get the best of me.  Instead of feeling old I’ve decided to consider myself a huge barrel of wisdom and knowledge.  I’ve accumulated years of both, along with experience and the scars to prove it.

I used to think 84 was ancient.  That was when I was about twelve.  With each passing year, I’ve discovered that anything older than me was over the hill.  Now in the golden years of life, 125 is looking old and I feel like a young whippersnapper.

I remember growing up in a classroom that still used black chalk boards.  I had a teacher of ample size who always wore black.  When she approached that chalk board, I imagined she must’ve been at least 60.  She’d apply the chalk and create a sentence and erase the same all in one sweep.  Her black dress was apparently smudged with white in conspicuous places when she turned around.  That woman was undoubtedly more like thirty, but to me she looked almost twice that age.

I guess you’re as old as you feel and there are plenty of times when I feel like Methuselah, but I certainly wouldn’t want to live as long as he did.  Today the eighties are considered the new sixties.  Aging doesn’t have to indicate the end of living.  In fact, in this stage of life, you have more time to think about things like the beauty of God’s creation – the joy of watching your children and grandchildren succeed – the comfort in knowing that this is not the end of life, but much more like the beginning.

So happy birthday to me.  I don’t have one foot in the grave yet.  I’m not a tree.  I am a child of God and life is good.  He allowed me this day as a gift.  I can’t wait to meet him personally to thank Him for it.