“The Hope of a Holy Heaven”

“Everlasting Love” by Kevin James Wilson, a nationally acclaimed graphic and fine Artist from Indianapolis, IN.  "This is God's talent. I'm just using it in my pencil drawings as I pass through this world.” 

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. ...

No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or

an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.”

Isaiah 65:17, 20 ESV (Revelation 21:1-4)

by Rev. Craig Kephart, PPL Board Member

End stages of the earthly life God gives us certainly do draw attention in our time. Insurance companies employ actuaries to make educated guesses at treatment plans while state legislatures debate the perceived advantages of physician-assisted suicide, now euphemistically labelled Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). Baby Boom generation demographics put a scare into Social Security’s life span; and elder abuse, elder law, or elder care are phrases we see increasingly.

We all recognize the kindness of Christian charity and the

appropriateness of ‘doing nice things’ for the frail elderly.

But perhaps we do not realize there are weightier,

eternal causes and effects to keep in mind, reasons for

elder care that carry significantly deeper meaning.O

When the government of England told the Puritan Richard Baxter that he wasn’t permitted to preach, Baxter set himself to spend his days only writing. Among the resultant works was his lengthy A Christian Directory.* In Part II of that hefty 17th century volume, he offered instruction for the aging and weak Christian. Baxter’s advice to the elderly, shown here in italics, translates well to shape our ministries of elder care and visitation and presses us toward much more than mere charitable niceties:

1. The old and weak have a louder call from God than others. To be one birthday older is to be another year closer to dying, we reluctantly acknowledge. Be prepared to speak about death’s reality and take the opportunity at hand.

2. Cast back your eyes upon the sins of all your life. Visiting with the elderly may afford that person a chance to get something off their chest, particularly if your own relationship with her or him has been broken.

3. Cleave closer now to Christ than ever. Across decades of ministry, only once was the answer “no” when I asked, “Shall we have a little prayer?” Find a comfortable way you can invite into prayer the person whom you are visiting.

4. Let the ancient mercies and experiences of God’s love, through all your [life], be still before you and fresh upon your mind, that they may kindle your love and thankfulness to God, feeding your own delight and comfort and helping you the

easier to submit to future weaknesses and death. Recall God’s goodness, and the blessed assurance that this continues into eternity, the life after this life.

5. Draw forth the treasure of wisdom and experience, which you have been so long in laying up. By their shared stories, help the elderly truly relish what God has taught them.

6. The aged must be examples of wisdom, gravity, and holiness unto the younger. Share with your loved one things God has taught you through him or her.

7. Especially it belongs to you to repress the heats, and dividing, contentious, and censorious disposition of the younger. As you visit, seek peace and pursue it. To do

otherwise risks of reinforcing any lingering, sinful attitudes of the elderly.

8. Of all men, you must live in the greatest contempt of earthly things. Be wary – especially when visiting with elderly family members - of bringing a ‘guilt gift,’ earthly token, because you have been withholding the gift of your time.

9. You should highly esteem every minute of your time and lose none in idleness or unnecessary things. Reading Scripture aloud is a profitable departure from the routines of much elder care, and by it you make a valuable contribution to the soul of the elderly.

10. When the decay of your strength, or memory, or parts, doth make you unable to read, or meditate, or pray by yourselves … make the more use of the more lively gifts and help of others. Christian, be assured that your visit is a precious accompaniment to the aged person for whom the day’s hours only drag on.

11. Take not the decay of nature, and of those gifts and works which depend thereon, for a decay of grace. Visitor: Be ready to celebrate the durable goodness of God and forgiveness in Christ with one whose ailments are burdensome to his or her spirit.

12. Be patient under all the infirmities and inconveniences of old age. To lose self-control, as a caregiver or visitor, models the opposite of how we can help the loved one continue growing in Christ despite the difficulties of aging.

13. Understand well that passive obedience is that which God calls you to in your age and weakness, and in which you must serve and honor Him in the conclusion of your labor. In a Matthew 25 parable, Jesus speaks of a master blessing faithful workers with the commendation we should all long to hear one day, ourselves, from The Master, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

14. Let your thoughts of death and preparations for it be as serious as if death were just at hand. Certainly, we need not make our visits entirely morbid or gloomy. Yet

Ecclesiastes reminds that there is a time for everything, including frank discussions of dying, death, and the state of one’s soul – whether troubled or at peace.

15. Live in the joyful expectation of your change, as becometh one that is so near to heaven, and look to live with Christ forever. In a 1990 Christianity Today article, the late theologian J.I. Packer wrote, “The hope of a holy Heaven, to be enjoyed in the company with our Savior, is a potent motive to holiness now.” The Christian visitor will do well to celebrate with the frail elderly the perfect promises of Glory and the end of this life’s troubles, and to help that person look forward to ‘crossing over.’

I sometimes wonder what became of old Don Strong, an elderly neighbor from my childhood, whether he died alone and whether anyone ministered the graces of Christ’s love to him when his death drew near. But for this season of our own lives there are plenty of Don Strongs in our churches or neighborhoods, among our acquaintances, and perhaps even in our families. It is not difficult to find one whom we can touch with the comforts of the Gospel and the company of a loving presence in their latter days.

 "Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers,

younger women as sisters, in all purity.

Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their

own household and to make some return to their parents,

for this is pleasing in the sight of God."

1 Timothy 5: 1-4 ESV

*The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, Vol. 1: A Christian Directory by Richard Baxter. “J.I. Packer said, ‘A Christian Directory is a peak point in Puritan devotional writing, and remains a precious resource for all, in this or any age, who want to know what is involved in biblical godliness’" (from Amazon.com, in Foreword of book). Reprinted in Jan. 1996 by Soli Deo Gloria Publications (now Reformation Heritage Books) from the 1846 edition of the 1673 original. ISBN 1-877611-13-1.