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Viewpoint from Rev Betty Trinder
Rev Betty Trinder
Minister for Methodist Church, Gorleston
“Don’t worry, Nanny, I’ll look after you, because you’re very old.” So said Eleanor aged 3 ½ to me aged 58. “How old am I then Eleanor?” I asked her, “38 ” she replied. “I’ll settle for that, I thought!” Out of the mouths of babes come some wonderful chances to reflect, in this case on…How old is VERY old and how old is TOO old?
When you are 3 ½ then 38 will seem pretty ancient but to a 58 year old is sounds remarkably young and when I groan about my age a 78 year old will say to me, “but you’re still young” and a 98 will say to a 78 year old, “I wish I was as young as you.” It all depends on where you are in your life, I guess. What about, “I’m too old to change now” or “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” say many people when we talk about e.mails or Facebook or mobile phones or new songs and hymns in church, new ways of being church. Can you actually put a figure on either VERY or TOO old and of course you can’t.
At Magdalen Way Methodist Church we have two Messy Church Groups. The first is for mainly under 10 year olds and their parent/carers and the other is an Adult Messy Church where the average age is 80+ years. Age really is just a number. Both groups have great fun and fellowship together. God calls people of all ages to serve him and come to know him as Lord and Saviour. In the scheme of the whole time the universe has been here and people inhabiting this earth even being 100 years old seems very young indeed.
How o ld was Noah when he built the Ark? Old enough to have 3 adult sons with wives. How old was Abraham when God called him to up sticks and move to a foreign land so that great new things could be achieved through him? At least old enough to get a bus pass! How old was his wife Sarah when she gave birth to their son Isaac. Too old is what Sarah thought when she was told she would have a child, she even laughed out loud, but it happened. How old was Moses when he led his people from Egypt to the Promise Land? 80 years old and the journey lasted 40 years, he was 120 years old when he died. The Bible is full of people of great age being used by God. The Prophet Jeremiah and priest Samuel, on the other hand, where very young when they got their call. Age has no bearing to God’s call on our lives, it can come at any time. Are you ready and willing to respond?
I John 3 from verse I says: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” All of us, no matter how old, are still children of God. Forget your age, ask what you can do for your community, for your neighbour, for your church, for yourself that will serve God is our time.
In Christ’s service,
Betty
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