As I was on my way to NYC to visit my abuelita for Easter my family and I stopped at a citgo to get some gas. I was a bit parched so I zipped inside and bought a “Vitamin Water” (which is by far one of the greatest beverages on the market…save Starbucks Caramel Latte and Tropicana Peach Orchard Harvest).Have you ever stopped to read the witty stuff the Vitamin Water company throws on the side of their bottle?Well, as the refrigerator door rested open upon my shoulder I stopped to muse at the wittiness of my green tea. The excerpt was as follows:

“Is it us or is “maturing” just another word for getting old? and who likes getting old anyway? your ears get hairier than your head, your back goes out more than you do, your late night dinners turn into early bird specials, you go from blonde hair to blue hair and your little black book contains only names that end in M.D.that’s why this bottle is packed with fancy science stuff (except without the bubbling beakers), like vitamin c +egcg (a natural antioxidant) to help kick your metabolism up a notch and keep you looking good from now until the day that you’re so “mature” you can put your teeth in a cup.”

I can’t help but grin at the tongue in cheek comments. The truth is no matter how much Vitamin Water I drink I’m still going to get old. When the teeth are in the cup and the ears get hairy, green tea just isn’t going to help. “Our time here on earth is but a vapor” as the Bible says, I’m not really that put out by it. I’ve already accepted the fact that age happens, we can’t do a whole lot to change the reality that these bodies we have are temporary. What we can do, however, is invest the time we have in the “present temporary” into the “future eternal”

“Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”

2 Corinthians 4:16

We have a perfect example from the Apostle Paul, or even more so Jesus Christ. They sacrificed themselves for the sake of God the Father. The wonderful phenomenon we witness is as they expended their physical lives for the Lord they grew and strengthened the spiritual life that would be enjoyed here in the present as well as in the future for eternity.

Oswald Chambers said this about the Apostle Paul:

“Paul faces the possibility of old age, of decay, and of death, with no rebellion and no sadness. Paul never hid from himself the effect which his work had upon him; he knew it was killing him, and, like his Master, he was old before his time, but there was no whining and no retiring from the work. Paul was not a fool; he did not waste his energy ridiculously, neither did he ignore the fact that it was his genuine apostolic work and nothing else that was wearing him out. Michelangelo said a wonderful thing–”The more the marble wears, the better the image grows,” and it is an illustration of this very truth. Every wasting of nerve and brain in work for God brings a corresponding uplift and strengthening to spiritual muscle and fiber.”

Oswald Chambers, The Message of Invincible Consolation 81 (the love of God volume)

I’m beginning to discover in my own personal life that old age isn’t something to fear and despise, but something to embrace and invest into. As we surrender and spend ourselves for God, the Marble of our character and personalities are worn through the weathering of our circumstances in life, and the greater the image of Jesus Christ grows in us.