A Reverse of Roles

It does not take long for one to find a place where our grandfathers and grandmothers are piled together. The ones who have money, or whose children have money, or are too bad off on the whole for anyone not to ignore find themselves in ‘homes.’ Some are apartments, some are townhouses, others are houses set on peaceful lots of land, though found in a gated community. While not vouching for all, most think that this is a suitable place for the elderly to pass their days: quiet, cared for, and under control with some company and the poor girl who has to coordinate all their events—BINGO and cards. There are in fact many who benefit from such a community: some need medical and physical attention that, quite frankly, their children cannot consistently provide. But what about the others? What about the mom and dad who just need help, but not a personal nurse, just a little help doing some things?

Our culture breeds frantic life. If we are not busy living, we’re busy dying. So long as the clock ticks, there is something productive to be done. The high-energy worldview is no place for the feeble. The Survival of the Fittest is well displayed in the business world we nurture. The young in this context are not just the future, they already are the present. There is no ‘out with the old and in with the new,’ for the old do not exist. My 12-year-old niece is better equipped for the business world than my grandparents. Technologies constant reformation makes obsolete the unlearned. Technology, it is obvious, is presently the greatest field of labor. So, in turn, the knowledge of the balding grey-heads is rendered obsolete as well. There is often a lure to treat the old as a child, ‘There, there; go eat your dinner at 4pm.’ It is true that often elderly people are a hassle, they take time, and they cannot do so much as us or to even help us with anything. But what does that say of what we value?

Christians are to think in different colors than society. Instead of basing ones worth on their productivity or perceived contributions to society, we see two things. First, though old and not what they once were, they are still humans, still created in the very image of God, still designed and able to reflect the glory of God with their life. Second, they are to be respected and to put some more stock behind the word respected, they are to be revered. The problem is not that old people’s bodies begin degrading, which we often equate with their value; rather, we devalue the valuable. We close our ears to wisdom thinking we always know more or at least best. The Bible teaches Christian’s to learn from the elderly, for in their long days they have gleaned much. They, in the Christian mind, are to be the pillars of society, the ones looked up to not down on. What about the burdens they bring? We are to love and nurture them as they loved and nurtured us as children—or as they were supposed to. We bear with their stroke-designed attitudes, we help them cut their food, we read to them when they cannot see, we walk with them and wait on them to finally get into the car: we help bear the burden that they own. The wisdom testified by their grey-hairs is to be desired more than a raise. The lessons they hold in their hearts are to be sought after more than reading our next novel. Their wisdom gives us years beyond what we’ve lived. Christian’s are meant to preserve and care for and love and revere those whom society stapled worthless.