Traveling Across A Snowy Field

Isaiah 46:4 even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

My beloved wife has a little spattering of gray hairs. Eight years or so ago she decided to stop highlighting her hair. I love her natural color. She struggled at first to see blond rays of sunshine removed from her beautiful brown hair. Then, peek-a-boo; out came the shinny color gray.

Forty-One years old is not really old age, yet it is “over the hill” as far as the world is concerned. The verse above gives me no duty to perform. It simply tells me something about God that both my family and yours need to know.

The God who made me will bear me up and carry me even through old age. This is a good and timely promise. A few weeks ago my neighbor left for the weekend and asked my daughter Ali to care for their horses. All of the kids went over to see the horses one of the days. When we were leaving to come home, Elsa’s legs were tired and asked me if I would carry her. I said “yes, I will carry you.” When I picked her up, she had no doubt that she would be safe and would not be forsaken.

Karie and I are tired of walking. The field is long and the snow is deep. Yet God comes along and says to us, “I will carry you, even to your old age.” He ever ages. His strength never decreases. He never grows tired or weary. In forty years from now I will be 81 years old. If Elsa were to ask me to carry her across the field I would probably need to decline. My strength will have decreased and Elsa’s burden of weight will have increased. But God is not like me. He will never decline my request for him to carry me. He will never look upon my 81 year old frame and say that my weight is too great for him to carry.

“even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”