Well, another birthday has come and gone, “…another day older and deeper in debt” as Tennessee Ernie Ford used to remind us. “Saint Peter don’t ya call me cause I can’t go; I owe my soul to the company store.” I went to Houston last week to visit my sister, three years and a day elder, to share some birthday cake and just to be with her for a couple of days. She’s at war with cancer, again. The daily battles, like any other war, some days you advance while other days you lose ground, and then there are days the doctors make you retreat to regroup. Chemo-therapy and radiation are not kind to the body and unfortunately, she has had to retreat due to poor blood labs. Hopefully in another week she’ll be back on schedule holding her own on the front line, battling the dragon that wants to destroy her kingdom. We’ve got a lot more birthdays to share yet.
Like I said, another birthday has come and gone and I feel great. Oh, to be that innocent child of five or six again when one’s thirty-year-old parents were old and fifty plus year-old grand-parents were ancient. Once you’ve passed up all that with your own age, it’s not so old at all anymore. Remembering innocence: …A woman was trying hard to get some ketchup out of the bottle when the phone rang. She asked her four-year-old daughter to answer the phone. Horrified, she heard her daughter tell the caller, “Mommy can’t come to the phone right now. She’s hitting the bottle.” …A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the woman’s locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked, “What’s the matter? Haven’t you ever seen a little boy before?” …A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed between the pages. “Mama! Look what I found” the boy cried out. “What have you got there?” his mother asked. With astonishment in the boy’s voice, he answered, “I think its Adam’s underwear!” The forbidden fruit has ruined everything.
[Psalm 71] As the baby boomers get older, they tend to continue adapting some childhood favorites to match their decadal circumstance. “Jesus Loves Me” is probably the first song any of us learned and memorized. Here are some new verses dedicated to the senior crowd. Sing along now; “Jesus loves me this I know; Though my hair is white as snow. Though my sight is growing dim; Still He bids me trust in him. (Chorus): Yes, Jesus loves me; Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me; The Bible tells me so. 2. Though my steps are, oh, so slow; With my hand in His I’ll go. On through life, let come what may; He’ll be there to lead the way. (Chorus) 3. Though I am no longer young; I have much which He’s begun. Let me serve Christ with a smile; Go with others, the extra mile. (Chorus) 4. When the nights are dark and long; In my heart He puts a song. Telling me in words so clear; Have no fear, for I am near. (Chorus) Yes, Jesus loves me; Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me; The Bible tells me so.” There are those who are afraid; There are those who don’t know enough to be afraid; And there are those who know their Bible, and are no longer afraid. I have lived all three levels of consciousness and presently reside in no fear. I rest in my innocence that Jesus will deliver me into the promises and grace of God’s eternal love.
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