Age Is Just a Number?

What's all this about age being just a number? Let's see. AGE is just a number. Age is JUST a number. Age is just a NUMBER. I think we put the emphasis on the "just" to show that age doesn't really matter. Actually "age" is a word, but we won't quibble. Exactly what do people mean when they say this? I'm afraid it too often means, "I am a fading celebrity, and I want to date a girl who is about the age of my granddaughter." That's creepy, and it's not what normal people like me mean.

But exactly what do I mean? And is it just a number? How much does it matter? It seems to matter most to the very young. A child who has been 12 for one day tells everyone he is almost 13. Actually, I think it always matters. This world operates in time. Even though we know we are eternal, we think in terms of time. That's all we can do, and time's important to God. The whole Bible is set in the context of time. "...and in the process of time it came to pass..." and "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:" When we're a child or teenager, we think we have lots of time. This may or may not be true. A 10-year-old may have 80 years left, or he may have 80 seconds. But the perception of the young is that they have unlimited time.

Then we reach about 40 or 45 and we think. "Whoa, my life is half over." When I was teaching, I always told my students my age.  Actually, I let them figure it out by putting the year of my birth on the board. One year a little girl looked up, surprised, "Wow, you're older than my grandmother!" And so it sneaks up on us. We move a little more slowly; the knees creak; people begin to treat us differently--partially as if we are fragile and partially as if we are slow learners. Perhaps both cases are true.

I do know this. We remain the same person on the inside no matter what our age. It's interesting that my mental picture of myself hasn't changed all that much in my adult life even though the physical picture has surely changed a lot! Unlike my teenaged self, I am now aware that I may not have much time left, and I don't want to waste it!