My art teacher made her heavenly flight.  For many years she not only gave me lessons in art, but lessons in painting on the canvas of my heart. 

            Virginia taught me much more than painting.  Her love for and faith in the Lord made every painting session a delight.  Her gift to life became God’s gifts to others and I treasured the time we had together.  Though 81, I did not consider her old.  I considered her a spiritual giant, ever growing in grace and knowledge.  She only left her “earth suit.”

Heaven is a wonderful place reserved by God for those who love Him.  Being an artist, think of the beauty she must be experiencing. 

            Society puts a premium on youth, strength and abilities, but God sees a life lived for Him as precious.  (Psalm 116:15 NCV).   He also talks about His children bearing fruit in old age.  “Even in old age they will still produce fruit and be vital and green”  (Psalm 92:14 TLB).

            I call the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties “the beautiful years.”  What is more beautiful than a dear older saint whose life has been painted with loyalty, righteousness, courage and love?

            Having walked with God a lifetime, the triumphs and victories have a way of mellowing the seniors.  Their wisdom and past experiences speak volumes of God’s

faithfulness.  They know who they are in Him and “the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts”  (Romans 5:5).

            With autumn and its beauty we begin to see the true colors of leaves.  In the spring and summer the leaves are covered with chlorophyll but fall reveals the real beauty.  As the flames of scarlet and burnished gold leaves decorate the landscape, I am reminded of the true colors of life. 

            Those who have followed the Lord are even more beautiful in older age.  They painted lives with colors of “sacrifice and service” with spectacular strokes of magnificence in this world.  Their faces glow with love and a radiance of glory twinkles in their eyes.  Thankfulness reveals contentment and they enjoy the gifts that come with age.

            I love the treatise of General Douglas MacArthur on growing old.  I found his article on aging in an old church bulletin:

            “Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.  People grow old only by deserting their ideals.  Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.  Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair…these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.

            Whatever your years, there is in every being’s heart the love of wonder, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing child-like appetite for what next, and the joy and game of life.

            You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

            In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber.  It received messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long as you are young.

            When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only are you grown old…and, then, indeed as the ballad says, you just fade away.”

                                                                             ___General Douglas MacArthur

            Virginia and General MacArthur painted their lives with grandeur.  I will strive to do that too.  God graciously divides our lives into days and years.  He did that so we could let go of yesterdays and anticipate tomorrows with joy and excitement, no matter our age.

            I call the later years “the beautiful years!”