Wrinkles

In the 2008 movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt plays an orphan whose life moves in reverse. He’s born an old man, and he gradually grows younger as time passes. It’s indeed a curious premise, but the movie expresses a common longing. It’s why Ponce de Leon sought for the Fountain of Youth; why plastic surgeons make a good living trying to make 50-year-olds look 30; why over-the-hill but still-competitive athletes hesitate to retire.

And it’s why anti-wrinkle creams crowd the skin care aisle at the supermarket. Do you remember when you first started to notice some wrinkles around your eyes? Newborn babies are practically wrinkle-free, and boys and girls smile from their school photos with bright eyes and smooth, supple skin.

Then life happens. Adolescents struggle with acne, their bodies erupting in response to pulsing hormones and changing moods. Students sit through long class sessions, stay up too late, and trade healthy meals for fast-food and caffeinated soft drinks. Adults get jobs, take on responsibilities, pay bills, get married, and bear smooth-skinned babies who wake them up at night. And the wrinkles come.

Voters inaugurate a fresh-faced leader to serve as president of the United States, then watch as the job takes its toll and he develops worry lines and dark circles under his eyes. Former classmates go to a high school reunion and think, “I don’t remember going to school with all those middle-aged people!”

The Bible has little to say about wrinkles and positive things to say about aging. Gray hair is “a crown of splendor,” according to Proverbs 16:31. “The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old,” says Proverbs 20:29. Job complained to the Lord, “Thou hast filled me with wrinkles” (Job 16:8, King James Version), but in light of everything Job went through—including boils all over his body—a few wrinkles came as no surprise and probably were the least of his problems.

Then there’s that lovely verse, also in the King James, where Paul writes about Christ’s love as the model for a husband’s love for his wife. The Lord sees his beloved followers as a bride beautifully dressed for her wedding day, “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27).

Wrinkled skin? On this fallen planet, it’s an occupational hazard of being human. It’s a natural consequence of time and life, exacerbated by hard living and exposure to the sun (and maybe by using the wrong kind of soap). But there’s something far worse than wrinkled skin, and that’s a wrinkled soul.

With the passing of time, some grow more cynical and less trusting, more selfish and less loving. Their souls become shriveled, shrunken, lifeless, pruney. By contrast, have you ever known Christians who, despite advancing age, seem to find fresh faith and more youthful zest with each passing year? What’s their secret, anyway? Not something you can find in the supermarket’s skin care aisle, that’s for sure.

Instead, it’s something you find in God’s Word. It’s the secret Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians 4:16 when he writes, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

That’s a welcome new wrinkle on aging, don’t you think?