FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

I have finally been putting most of my computer photo files onto CD’s.  It has been quite a revelation.  They say that the mirror doesn’t lie, but somehow I look better in my bathroom mirror than in photographs! Comparing those taken of us only five years ago to recent ones certainly proves that the aging process speeds up exponentially after age sixty.  Seeing less hair (where you want it at least!), more wrinkles, darker spots, and deeper sags can be a bit depressing. 

This was further compounded when the granddaughters came to visit.  For a fun activity we went online to do free virtual makeovers.  At these sites, you download a photo of yourself, and then you can apply all kinds of make-up, change your hair color, and try on a multitude of hairstyles. In some programs you can even plump your lips, do different eye colors, try on sunglasses and add other accessories.

While the girls liked seeing themselves in the most outrageous styles and colors, I was just in search of more flattering looks.  These instant makeover methods are much more appealing than the long process of growing your hair to a different length, spending big bucks at the beauty parlor, or suffering pain with a facelift to get a new image.

Befores and afters can be very enlightening!

In our youth oriented culture, most of us desire to look more like we used to look, but when you think about it, we probably weren’t very satisfied with our own images back then either!

The apocryphal stories of the search for a fountain of youth surely had at least a little bit of truth in them.  But there have always been more realistic search options for “painting the old barn”!

 I don’t even go to the field to drive the tractor all day without putting on make-up and fixing my hair.  Maybe that’s vanity, but it just seems right to look your best when you can. I’ve certainly contributed my fair share to the Mary Kay empire over the years!

Thankfully in our 45 years of marriage, handsome husband and I have aged together and accepted one another’s changes gracefully.  The way we see each other today is probably tempered by the memory’s picture of how we looked at twenty as well, and that’s a nice thought. 

With our oldest grandchild Haley age 12 recently

It’s just human to find ourselves lacking when we compare ourselves to others, but it won’t always be this way.  Aging, change, and dissatisfaction stops in heaven.  The tree of life that was once in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2 and 3) is now in heaven (Revelation 2). No need for makeovers, no more aging, no more worries, no more pain there.

A new body, a new outlook…I’m looking forward to drinking from that fountain of youth!

For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.

Psalm 36:9