When you are old and your hair is gray

I was concerned by post-Referendum comments relating to what some saw as the undue influence which older voters had had on the result.  The following headline appeared over an article in The Independent: ‘How old people have screwed over the younger generation.’  One young person tweeted, ‘I want to shout out all the old people who voted to ruin my future and the futures of generations to come.’ These are just two typical examples among many, and these kind of comments greatly concern me.

They concern me, firstly, because they imply that when older people cast their vote they were doing so for purely selfish motives.  I get the point that, on average, younger people have more years left to live on planet earth than older people, and therefore will have longer to live with the consequences of the Brexit vote.  But when I cast my vote I was very aware that the outcome would affect the lives of my children and grandchildren, and I have no reason to doubt that many older people also bore in mind such thoughts when they voted.

Of more concern to me, however, is the more general point about how our society often regards older people.  Phrases such as “had their day” and “passed it” are not uncommon.  In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, we read these words, ‘Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord’ (Leviticus 19:32).  Clearly, God’s desire is that older people are to be respected and treated with honour.  Equally clearly (and very sadly), this is often not the case in our modern society.  Ageism is very much alive.

For some, approaching old age can be worrying.  Respected Christian leader John Stott, who died at the age of 90, was quoted as saying “I knew I had to prepare for eternity, but no-one told me I had to prepare for being old.”  Billy Graham, who is still alive at the age of 97, said this: “All my life I was taught how to die as a Christian, but no one ever taught me how I ought to live in the years before I die … It is not easy.”

To disrespect a person because of their age is a denial of who they are in the sight of God, whether that be as seen in Paul’s advice to his young protégé Timothy (‘Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young’) or with regard to older people.  Older people have so much to offer, as Job understood, ‘Is not wisdom found among the aged?  Does not long life bring understanding?’ (Job 12:12).  Clearly God sees great value in older people: ‘I am your God and will take care of you [when] you are old and your hair is gray.  I made you and will care for you’ (Isaiah 46:4).

A society which disregards and disrespects its elderly is a society that is sick at heart.  Yesterday I visited my 93-year-old mum in hospital following a fall she had at home.  The experience has left her rather confused and disoriented.  While I was sitting with her, a member of the nursing staff came to take her blood pressure etc.  As I listened to the conversation which went on between the nurse and my elderly, confused mum, I was noticed with great pleasure how the nurse treated mum with great compassion and dignity.  Mum was treated as someone of value.  If only our society as a whole could follow that example.