On August 17, 2019, the Northern High School Class of 1969 celebrated our 50th Class Reunion. How can that be? In some ways, it seems like only yesterday we walked the halls at Northern thinking that graduation would never come. In other ways, when I think of all that has happened, it seems as if a century has passed.
Some people avoid this sort of milestone because it reminds them of the inevitable—we’re getting older. Others become sentimental and come to a class reunion for the first time since graduating. No matter how one reacts, there is no turning back the clocks—we are all fifty years older than we were when we graduated.
My sweet husband tells me I still look the same as I did when he married me forty-nine years ago. Many of my classmates at the reunion told me they didn’t need to look at my name tag because I still look the same.
In spite of that, when I look in the mirror, I see the changes. I’ve never felt the need to dye my hair because I inherited my father’s genes, but I still have plenty of gray hair. I don’t have many wrinkles on my face but plenty on my neck, where one’s age will always show. And some days when cold weather comes, my aches and pains make me feel older than my sixty-eight years.
Since aging is inevitable, how do we face the process? How do we face our mortality? II Corinthians 4:16 tells us…
Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
When we were young, many of us placed a great deal of emphasis on our appearance. If, we’ve never learned that inner beauty is of much more importance than outer beauty, our mirror will have the power to devastate us as we age. In her meditation on Cultivating Beauty,* Cynthia Heald says, “Just as a woman’s lack of inner character can mar her good looks, a beautiful soul can render a plain face lovely.” The same is true for a man.
Uncommon beauty is sown and cultivated in the soul. It is watered by passion and wisdom, it puts down deep roots by practicing integrity, it flourishes by being selfless and gracious to other, it grows strong by staying firmly planted in its circumstance and courageously enduring the clouds and the wind…It is this extraordinary priceless beauty that we want—all the spa treatments in the world cannot keep us young or make us truly beautiful.*
In truth, outwardly we are wasting away. We have no choice about that. But we can choose to be inwardly renewed day by day through God’s Word and through choosing to clothe ourselves…with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God (I Peter 3:4).
It is Marie Stoops’ opinion that, You can take credit for beauty at sixteen. But if you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your soul’s own doing. I’m not sure I agree since even at sixteen, a great deal of credit for beauty belongs to God who created us, but by the age of sixty, how we’ve lived our lives will likely add or detract from our beauty.
If you find that looking in the mirror is causing you to lose heart as you age, make a conscious decision to change your focus. Spend more time and money on reading God’s Word and inspirational books that emphasize inner beauty than you do on cosmetics and anti-aging cream. Ask God to show you how to be inwardly renewed day by day.
Heavenly Father, make whatever changes are needed so that the beauty of Jesus can shine through us. Clothe us with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to you. Amen.
