As I write, I am 83, going on 84, which I will be in December this year. By the time this article is published, I will have been fully 84 years old!
Shortly before his death, Israel’s greatest Old Testament prophet Moses wrote a psalm about aging among “the children of men” (Psalm 90:5-12, NKJV):
In the morning they are like grass which grows up:
In the morning it flourishes and grows up,
In the evening it is cut down and withers.
For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And by Your wrath we are terrified.
You have set our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance,
For our days are seventy years [KJV, “threescore years and ten”]
And if by strength they are eighty years [KJV, “fourscore”],
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow.
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knows the power of Your anger
For the fear of You is Your wrath:
We finish our days like a sigh.
So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Since the stroke which I suffered in February 2019, I have felt my life to be “only labor and sorrow” (Psalm 90:10)! Not only that, the wife of my youth, now fully 85, has been suffering from dementia for some years now, a condition some have called “second childhood.” Her younger sister is in the same condition, as is my own elder sister.
“Second childhood” describes a state of super-elderly folks where they are almost totally dependent on other people like a child for such basic physical necessities as bathing oneself, going to the toilet, even being spoon-fed at meals, and being helped with ordinary human movements like sitting down, standing up, walking, going up and down steps, getting down to bed and up, getting dressed or undressed, etc. Some, unable to stand and walk, have to be moved around in a wheelchair, as is the case with my wife, after she broke her hipbone socket from a bad fall.
I thank God that my health has not deteriorated to a point where I need this kind of help. But I do have a caregiver or two to assist me in getting in and out of vehicles, keeping an eye while I take walks, being updated with my medications, driving our car, doing home repairs, etc.
Nevertheless, I feel a sense of me being reduced to a state of dependence on others almost likea child, although not as much as my wife, and others in a condition like hers. This got me to thinking that, perhaps this is part of God’s plan to give old folks a “heart of wisdom” and prepare them to meet their God.
Jesus said: “…unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-4). By becoming “as little children,” Christ meant dependence on and trust in God – as children naturally have with their parents. But God also inspired His prophet Jeremiah to write: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5).
However, this does not mean that God cannot use men [and women, too] to help people in need of help! It’s a matter of priority — who do we look up to first and foremost, and ultimately for our salvation, to help us?
How would God judge those who are in their “second childhood,” or close to it? We can learn from how God judged the people of Israel when they sinned by complaining against Moses, and ultimately God Himself, in the wilderness. The account is recorded in Numbers 14:26-33. Here those who came out of Egypt aged 20 years old and above, except Caleb and Joshua, were excluded from entering the Promised land. Only those below age 20, the ‘little ones,” eventually reached that land (Verses 29-31).
It would then appear that God will judge those in their “second childhood,” or thereabouts, according to their works while, as full-grown adults, they still had full control of their mind and body. But not now, when they have become “as little children.” [See: “Judged by Our Works.’]
It is a great source of consolation, for those who, in their old age, feel weak and dependent, to ponder the apostle Paul’s testimony, in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10:
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Thus, after all his struggles, Paul could say: “I have fought a good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness [symbol for everlasting life], which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me in that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8; compare with 1 Corinthians 15:50-54).
We should also be greatly strengthened by the magnificent promise in Romans 8:31-39, that, with Christ’s love, we would be, and are, “more than conquerors” in our struggle with our sins and other challenges, and make it into God’s kingdom.
“…to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen” (Romans 16:27)!
Pedro R. Meléndez, Jr.
18072025/02082025