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

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 22, 2017): Isaiah 46

Singer and songwriter Ben Folds, in his song “Annie Waits,” writes “The clock never stops, never stops, never waits. [We're] growing old. It's getting late.” Time marches on, no matter what it is that we are doing, or why it is that we have decided to wait, time refuses to stop for us. The insistent march of time can cause panic in some. A date that is always getting closer whether or not we are ready for what that day might hold. We might wait, but time doesn’t. Time marches on.

And that can be scary. As gray hairs begin to multiply it serves as a reminder that time might be getting short. The truth is that in our contemporary culture, the productive moments of our lives are relatively short. Childhood and the teenage years are spent busy with the matter of growing up. Our brain doesn’t really mature until we reach our mid-twenties. And then there are so many other fun things to do. It seems, at that moment, that there is so much time in which we can accomplish the things that we want to do. Time doesn’t wait for us to get serious about life. We know that we need to save for retirement, that we need to spend time with ones that we love, that there are important things, at least to us, that we need to be accomplished. But for right now, shouldn’t there also be time just to relax and have fun.

So our lives begin to evolve. We start a cycle. Work hard at the things that make us money during the week, and then party on the weekend. The important things can wait until some point down the road when we are a little older. Then the gray hairs begin to sprout, and we start to wonder what the important things were that we thought we needed to accomplish in this life. And we are starting to believe that it might be too late.

God assures Isaiah that, unlike the other gods in the lives of the people, he is present in every moment of life. He is not a God that cuts and runs just because we begin to grow older. But more than that, he assures Isaiah that purpose exists at every stage of life. There is never a time when there is not something that is front of us to accomplish. And the promise of God is that he will be with us every step of the way.

I love the old Ira Stanphill gospel song -

Many things about tomorrow
I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand.

I don’t need to know anything more.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 47