I’m still recuperating from my days in “Extrovert Land,” and am still very much processing my time in Nashville at Donald Miller’s Storyline conference. Next week, I’ll begin a blogging series recapping my transformational time in Tennessee. I can’t wait.
In the meantime, I was perusing some of my old pictures and came across one that I’d taken a while back. It was one of those random, just-walking-along images that causes you to stop and not only snap the picture, but re-examine your entire existence.
Here it is:
Now, one might assume the driver of this peeling, Apple-stickered, graffiti’d chariot of glory is of the hippie/stoner variety, and as such, completely disregard the words intentionally painted across the side. Regardless of his/her affinity for medicinal marijuana, that string of words resonated with me:
today we’re younger than we’re ever going to be.
On the one hand, yes, the statement is a truism beyond obvious. OF COURSE we get older day by day. OF COURSE we are younger today than we’re ever going to be.
And yet the more I think about this statement, the more there is to dissect. The more I wonder.
Are we? Are we really younger than we’re ever going to be?
Yes, you’re older now than when you first started reading this post. Yes, you’ll go to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow morning older than you’ve ever been. Someday, your increasing age will cause your mortal body to perish.
But what about after we die? What about this mysterious afterlife that we Christians like to predict completely but, in reality, know nothing about?
What if today we’re not really younger than we’re ever going to be?
What if, someday, we’ll actually grow younger with every passing sunset?
What if, with every dawn, we wake up and realize an increased spring to our steps?
What if, with every twinkling of the stars, we lie back on a wavy hillside and breathe in, breathe out, feeling the blood surge more quickly through our veins, our heart beating more forcefully than it ever has, our 100 trillion cells no longer deteriorating but forever rejuvenated anew?
What if, somewhere beyond this mortal horizon, our true youth is a reality yet to come?
Interesting thoughts! I’ve often wondered if we’ll be the same age in heaven as we were when we died, but that seems a little strange. Then again, if everyone in heaven is the same age, that’s strange too. Something tells me we won’t have ages there, I guess we’ll find out someday!