The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head. (Proverbs 20:29)
A few years ago I met a man who shared his story of how he escaped from eastern Europe during a time when it was part of the Soviet Union. As we discussed his life as an American citizen, I asked him what he saw that troubled him about living here. He said that he could not understand the attitude here toward taking care of the elderly. As I pressed him to elaborate, he shared how he was raised in a culture that the entire family was involved in taking care of their elderly relatives. He added that people here will take great care of their dogs, even allowing them to sleep at the foot of their bed, but will not even allow their elderly parents to do the same. He said it was not because they couldn’t, but because they did not want to be bothered with it disrupting their lives. Proverbs 20:29 points out a telling truth about human nature. We glorify youth, good looks, and vitality, but see nothing attractive about growing old. Proverbs 16:31 says, “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness. ” We learn from God’s Word that we should honor our gray headed elderly because they are the ones who loved us enough to persist in the struggle to raise us and pass along their wisdom to us. The least we can do is to make sure that in their twilight years of life, we love them enough to persist in the struggle to take care of them.
