Honoring the Aged Among Us!

All Rose Morat wanted to do that morning was to walk to church. So the 101 year old grabbed her walker and shuffled out of her apartment. As she approached the church building, 44 year old Jack Rhodes approached her and offered to help her into the church. Just as they got to the door to the church's vestibule, Rhodes put Rose in a head lock and punched her three times in the face. He then grabbed her purse. When Rose also grabbed for her purse, he punched her again and pushed her to the ground. Rhodes made off with $33 in cash and Rose's apartment keys. Fortunately all this was captured by a surveillance camera which led authorites to Rhodes (who had been accused in the past for attacking an 85 year old woman). Rose suffered a broken cheekbone.

When I first read this news account, I read in disbelief. How can anyone attack a woman over 100 years of age? Apparently Rhodes could! But what I see here is simply a symptom of a deeper problem in our society - and that is a decreasing respect for the older among us. Our culture is so youth oriented that we have lost sight of the value of the aged in our society. God, however, has a far different view of senior adults. Proverbs 16:31 reads, "Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life" and Proverbs 20:29 tells us that "the glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old."

Let us as a community of Christ-followers buck this trend in our society. Let's learn to honor the aged among us!

Thanks for listening,

pj