A Face That Tells A Story

There was something so beautiful about her face.
The world would probably surgically alter her years.
The world wants nothing to show the passage of time.

I looked at her kind face with its wrinkles like a tree trunk marking the years.
Wrinkles in all the right places: where she smiled; where her eyes expressed her heart.
She is simply lovely.
She wore her years on her face; she wore them well.

She has buried a child and a husband.
She grieves, yet grieves with Hope.
She has other children, many grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.

I’m blessed.
She is.
It’s not easy getting old.
It’s certainly not!

I sat with her before church began, her mind as clear as someone half her age.
She is 89 years old and told me she began singing in the choir when she was only ten.
I’ve been singing for 79 years. I think it’s time to stop now.

It was the first Sunday our choir would be singing since before the summer.
She would not be up there this day.
She has every reason in the book for not singing.
Valid reasons, but reasons that could easily be remedied with a little help.

She has decided not to sing, and I will miss seeing her up there.
There are technical singers, as there are technical musicians.
There are also heart singers and she is one of those.
The two categories are not mutually exclusive.
Singing brings her such joy.

I looked at her small frame, not as straight as it once was, and I marveled.
I can still see the girl she must have been.
In her eyes, I see the girl.

I know that I have a few more wrinkles around my eyes and smile lines around my mouth.
I have gray sprinkled through my hair.
Underneath is the girl I once was; the girl I still feel in my heart.
Underneath is the girl that hides behind the years, but is not lost.

My sweet friend is very independent.
She loves to give and receive hugs and everyone loves to oblige.
She is a collector of bells: silver ones, pewter ones, fancy ones, and plain ones.

It takes courage to get old, someone once said.
It does, but even age is something we never face alone when we walk with Jesus.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

The world does not know how to see the unseen.
What is seen is all the world sees.
What is seen does not last.
The world does not take the time to ponder the eternal.

The world accepts or rejects based on appearances.
Since appearances matter so much, the world makes alterations to fit the mold.
Whose mold?
Who decides the criterion that determines how we are to look?

Models on the runway often look emaciated yet that is considered glamorous.
Their bodies are seen as nothing more than hangers on which to display the latest fashion.
Natural curves and natural aging are discouraged.
It has less to do with fashion and more to do with mortality.

The world fears that it is losing its grip on life.
While it tries so hard to hold onto life, the world never takes hold of true LIFE!

There is nothing more beautiful than a person who lives in the present reality of heaven.
A person who holds onto this world loosely.
A person who lives here, but knows their true home is there.

I had lunch with a friend today.
She told me about the small town where she went to college.
She hoped that she would never leave the tranquility of that place.

When she married, her husband needed to move because business took him elsewhere.
She followed him yet longed for the Norman Rockwell life she had in the small town.
A friend wisely told her, You’re not longing for the Norman Rockwell life.
You are longing for heaven.

How true!
There is a longing we have here that can only be satisfied there.
We think we have found the ideal place, only to find it falls short.
Each day that we live, we have joys and blessings, sorrows and struggles.
Each day that we live we are a little closer to heaven if we are walking with Jesus.
We have nothing to fear because He is with us; never leaving us, never forsaking us.

I don’t want the surgically altered ideals of the world.
I want the lines that tell the Story.

I want the joy of the girl not hidden but evident to all who look deep in my eyes.
I want them to see the unseen there.
I want them to see the reality of heaven in my eyes.
I want them to see Jesus, just like I see Him in the eyes of my friend.