5 Reasons to Have Older People in Your Life

Last week I saw a small white-haired woman creep down my street with a small white-haired dog. Until then, she was only a rumor to us newcomers who arrived when the Pandemic did. Elderly people felt the impact of isolation unlike others. After all, the CDC said, “The risk for severe illness with COVID-19 increases with age,” and greatest risk is, “among those 85 or older.” News like that led to months of isolation, solitary fear, missed family events, and faces through windows. No one who wasn’t in that category wanted to be in that category.

Did it make you uncomfortable? 2 Corinthians 4:16 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” We watched the wasting before our eyes this year. The possibility of getting Covid made us all think about the certainty of getting older. The wasting away part is hard.

Everyone has someone older in their life. For some people, it’s a joy, and for others—not so much. This year God blessed me by keeping my connections with older ones in my life. For some reason, He added more and the addition of aging friends encouraged me. They strengthened and helped me in uncertainty and change. There is newborn peace to be found in hanging out with elderly people. Here are 5 reasons to have older people in your life.

Older people cling to God

People don’t have God just because they’re old. But if they have a personal relationship with God, He keeps that relationship when they get to the golden years. He promises, “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).

In a fast-paced world of finger swipes and voice texts, younger people easily become impatient with ones who already logged a lifetime of learning new technologies. As eagle eyes and steady hands give way to faded hearing and shaky penmanship, people in the “not old yet” category will find it’s their turn to follow God’s example of keeping a connection with the aging crowd. Often, gray hairs cling to God as heaven nears.

“Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord,” (Leviticus 19:32). If God has time for the aged, shouldn’t the young?

Older people know wisdom

Not every older person sounds wise. Sometimes, the more feeble we get, the less filter we may have. (The stereotype of a “grumpy old man” came about for a reason. Just sayin…) But Job has a point when he asks, “Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” (Job 12:12)

The longer we live, the more understanding we get. We never stop needing to let God’s Spirit guide our tongue, but more life means more wisdom lessons. When the Pandemic pulled the rug out from under family life, school, travel, work, community, and church, senior adults with a long and colorful history of resilience had wisdom for those who did the work of mining it and making a place for it. In long life we gain understanding.

Older people bear fruit

When a righteous life qualifies as an “old righteous life,” it still has much to contribute. New movers and shakers may be impressed by their new ideas and approaches, but there’s a harvest to be gleaned in leaning in to listen and learn from those who have been bearing fruit through storms pre-dating new seeds. Heirloom fruit may not look the same as what’s trending now, but that’s exactly why the young benefit from preserving a place for the fruit of old age.

Before influencers of another generation begin to gray, wise youth pause to make room for righteous lives still bearing fruit. “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,” (Psalm 92:14). Older people may not use the tech, play the instrument, express their worship, read the authors, or meet for coffee in the same way younger generations do. That’s exactly why their fruit brings essential variety and flavor.

Older people treasure family

Spend time listening to an older person talk about their life and loves, and conversation will turn to children and grandchildren. In God’s plan to fill the earth and multiply His glory, “Children’s children are a crown to the aged,” (Proverbs 17:6a). You may notice that as a life advances in years, older voices might not stay up with current language. Talk today about “honoring my truth,” “making space to lament,” or “being present in this moment” to someone whose life began shortly after the whole world was at war, and you might get a bewildered look.

It’s not them, it’s you.

When a long experience meets a shorter experience, it takes work to connect. It’s a treasure worth having, to overcome facial expressions, tones, and words born of and limited by our experience. Both old and new generations have to commit to the effort of mutual understanding.

The old treasure the young. The young should treasure the old. “Listen to your father, who gave you life,  and do not despise your mother when she is old.” (Proverbs 23:22)

Older people reveal the future

Being with an older person is like being with ourselves in the future. For good or for bad, they show us who we can be. That’s not the same as who we have to be. In saying we find newborn peace in being with old people, I recognize some inter-generational relationships are more traumatic than treasured. I get that. I’ve lived that. But that teaches us too.

Maybe this truth influenced how we watched the suffering of our seniors this year with greater attention. We grieved the hardships for those we love and those we lost. And we saw ourselves. Sometimes literally watching through a window, we had a window into who we are and who we may be and what we may experience.

• Are we clinging to God in times of calamity?
• Are we growing in wisdom from God?
• Are we bearing fruit we want to keep bearing?
• Are we treasuring those who brought us into the world, cared for us, and went before us?
• Are we showing the next generation what we’ve learned from the life we’ve lived so far?

We know this: “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10)

The gray haired crowd in my life hasn’t lost heart. They know they’re changing physically, and they appreciate prayers for the difficult decline. But like 2 Corinthians 4:16 assures those who followed Christ sometime in their lifetime of calamities and lessons, their inner man renews daily. I hear and see the eternal focus when I’m with the grays in my life, and it brings me newborn peace.

• Where did older people fit in your life this last year?
• Has God used you as a source of peace for them?
• Has God used them as a source of peace for you?