And even when I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come. (Psalm 71:18, NASB)
Arnold Palmer hit the last competitive golf shot playing with Bill Rogers in an exhibition at St. Andrews in 2015. I have a beautiful photograph, compliments of Gary Christopher, of Arnie standing on that bridge over the Swilcan Burn, reflecting on life and time.
Arnie once said, as he buried his tears into his hand towel at the press conference after his last US Open in 1994, “It wouldn’t be so bad if it hadn’t been so good.”
The march of time is inevitable. Time is free, but it is also priceless.
As a full-fledged member of this aging group, I still find some truth in humor. A true old friend is not necessarily the one you have known the longest, but the one you have played the most golf with and still love anyway.
My friend Gary Christopher says, “I love playing golf with everyone but myself.” Bill Rogers laments, “Please invite me, but don’t make me come. It all looks good on paper, but then I must get off the couch and pack and leave home.”
Another old friend told me that he still has a landline telephone in his home. I asked why. He said, “So I can call my cell phone when I can’t find it.”
Psalm 90:12 (NASB) states, So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom. Wisdom in living life now, in looking forward. Our good friend Tom Flory was a wise man who uttered these words through tears of joy just days before he went Home: “I have been apprehended with overwhelming gratitude for what God has done for me and through me.”
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away (James 4:14, NASB).
Our brief time here is a beautiful love story, and we get to be a part of it. Our Home with our Father is the beautiful ending to the greatest love story of all time. So, rejoice and be glad on this day we have been given.
The following is from a sermon preached by Vincent Van Gough on October 29, 1876. This was before he started painting and before he died at the age of 37. This represents a beautiful insight into the love story of time.
Through the landscape, a road leads to a high mountain far, far away; on the top of that mountain, a city whereupon the setting sun casts a glory. On the road walks a pilgrim, staff in hand. He has been walking for a good long while already, and he is very tired. And now he meets a woman, a figure in black that makes one think of St. Paul’s words, “As being sorrowful yet always rejoicing.” That Angel of God has been placed there to encourage the pilgrims and to answer their questions. And the pilgrim asks her: “Does the road go uphill then all the way?”
And the answer is: “Yes, to the very end.”
And he asks again: “And will the journey take all day long?” And the answer is: “From morn till night, my friend.”
And the pilgrim goes on, sorrowful yet always rejoicing – sorrowful because it is so far off and the road is so long. Hopeful as he looks up to the eternal city far away, resplendent in the evening glow … And he says, “I shall be more and more tired but also nearer and nearer to Thee.”
Prayer: We are grateful for the journey of life and most hopeful for what is to come.