MY God!” you whisper as you stare at the mirror. “What is it?” asks the wife, looking up in alarm, “You look pale, come we need to take you to the hospital, you’re getting paler. Doctor! Doctor, my husband is turning white. Yes, please send an ambulance, I think he’s having a heart attack. Darling lie down straight on the bed, the ambulance will be here in a moment!”
“But,” you whisper, “Bbb..ut!” “Ssshhh!” whispers your wife, “Sssshhhh, don’t try to speak. Everything will be alright!” “Everything will not be alright!” you whisper back. “Sssshhh!” she says, “Don’t talk, ah there’s the ambulance!” “I…I don’t need an amb..”
“Sssshhhh!” she says. “Come quickly men, yes put him on the stretcher gently, gently!” “There’s nothing wrong with him!” says the cardiologist in the hospital “Of course there is!” you whisper. “Of course there is!” the wife shouts aloud. “I want a second opinion!” “What are the symptoms,” asks the second opinion, before he delivers it. “Here,” you say, “Just under my eyes. Can you see it!”
There’s no ambulance to take you home. A hearse would have been better, you think as you sit, with an angry wife on the journey back. “You embarrassed me!” says the wife at home, “You mean we went through all this tamasha, just because you found a wrinkle under your eyes?” “It’s the first wrinkle. I’m going to die!” you whisper as the wife gives you a withering look.
I wonder how you reacted when you saw your first wrinkle? Did you act like the person we just saw being taken to the hospital? I’m sure not. But did you go to work that day, thinking your days were numbered? Did you stare back at all who looked at you mumbling in your mind, “Don’t stare at my wrinkle please, I’m not as old as you think I am!” I wonder how many of us think of the wrinkles of ageing as some of the most beautiful lines we have. They say, “Look at me, I have gone through many experiences that have made me stronger, and richer!”
“This wrinkle, is when I lost my job, I worried and worried, and worried!” “Then what happened granddad?” “God stretched out His hand and wiped the worries away!” “But he didn’t wipe those lines away?” “Ah, no, those wrinkles remind me, how stupid it was to worry.
And those other ones near my mouth and those on my neck, all tell of days of struggle, till I called out to the Lord and He stretched out His hand and helped me!” If you’ve got wrinkles and alive enough to read this, then touch them and praise God for a gentle reminder of times when He carried you through..!
