Strangers at Christmas Dinner
It was Christmas Day in the Tripp household. I wish I could say it was Christmas of last year, or even five years ago, but it must have been 20 years in the past now.
We had just finished our wonderful Christmas Day feast, consuming more food than any one family should eat in a single sitting (though we tried). Everyone at the table was engaged in a gaggle of random, interweaving conversations, when all of a sudden, I noticed strange men at our family meal.
Who were these randomers and where did they come from? Did Luella invite new neighbors over, and I completely missed their entrance? Did I have long-lost cousins that I never knew about?
Then I realized: these men weren’t intruders or interlopers; they were my grown adult sons! They weren’t playing with the box in which their action figure toys came in. They weren’t discussing skateboarding flips and tricks. They weren’t arguing over who had to wash the dishes first.
They were discussing careers and business, grown men engaged in adult conversations. It didn’t seem possible that these could be my sons. “I’m not that old!” I reasoned with myself. There simply haven’t been enough years. There are things I still wanted to do with my boys.
Everyone else was talking, but I was silent. Seemingly, in a flash, my eyes had been opened to the reality of my age and aging. Life was passing by, and I realized life would never be the same again.
The next day, things were different. As I got out of bed, I was more aware of aches and pains than I had been before. The face I shaved seemed older, and I had more gray hair than I had noticed before. I found myself, in the quiet moments, musing about the past more than I ever had before. My eyes were open, and I couldn’t shut them anymore.
In fact, today my youngest son turns 40. My youngest! It all passed by with blinding speed and went largely unnoticed—until that watershed Christmas day. It was a moment of profound personal awareness. I finally saw it: I am not young anymore! I have a massive chunk of my life behind me. I have much more life behind me than ahead of me.
Some of you may be at a similar stage and age in life (next month, I will turn 75). Some of you might feel invincible with youth. The rest of you are probably somewhere in the middle.
For the next several weeks, I want to discuss getting older and what the Bible has to say about the journey of life. But don’t unsubscribe if you’re not old! On the contrary, this series is applicable to everyone walking through life in a broken world, no matter your age.
We all tend to fall into believing that what is, will always be. We often ignore the reality that everything in this broken world, apart from God, is constantly changing, and that all of creation is in a state of decay.
Romans 8:20–23 captures the state of our world.
“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
Whether you’re 15, 35, 55, 75, or 95, you live in a broken world, and you cannot escape its brokenness. Things simply won’t work the way you want or expect. Everything is in the process of dying. That might be slow, or it might be so sudden and acute like the pains of childbirth.
No matter your age and what you face in this broken world, you can be guaranteed of one thing: Jesus is with you, he has experienced what you are experiencing, he sympathizes with our weaknesses and struggles, and he provides mercy and grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14–16).
You don’t have to ignore the process of aging or deny the reality of life in a broken world.
God understands it all, and his Son has covered it all. Every day, we can be comforted with the amazing gospel truth that provision has been made for everything we will face in our aging bodies and in our broken world.
A Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to see that you understand everything I’m going through. You get what it’s like to feel weak and limited. You understand pain and suffering. You are able to empathize with me in all of my weaknesses, so please pull me close to you as I wrestle with feeling inadequate in so many things. You have covered all my brokenness, and you understand. Thank you for rescuing me from myself. In your name, amen.
Discussion Prompt for Children
1. Is weakness always a bad thing? Why or why not? When you experience feeling weak, what other feelings do you have?
2. God says that his power is made perfect in our weakness. What do you think that means?
3. Even when we’re weak, how can we know that Jesus is with us? How does that make you feel?
Reflection Questions
1. What circumstances in your life make you feel weak? What other emotions typically accompany your feelings of weakness? How do you think God wants to meet you in your weaknesses? Why is that a good thing and not a bad thing?
2. How can weakness in life be an advantage for a follower of Jesus? How do you normally respond to your weaknesses? Is there a heart posture that God might want to change in your life related to that?
3. What comforts you about the fact that Jesus is always near to you and he understands what you’re going through? What specific mercy and grace would you like to ask him for if you are currently in a time of need?
4. How have you seen God’s provision show up for you in the past? How can those moments from the past help to remind you of God’s provision in the present and how he will care for you in the future?