I am often around people with experience written on their faces. When you are young your face is clear and unlined, like a page yet to be written. There is a fresh and beautiful quality to that unlined face, something like the beauty of a showroom car that hasn't yet competed with commuters or carried youngsters with sticky fingers. The face of a younger person shows the marvelous creative artistry of the Master's hand. There is symmetry and clear definition of features and the form and function of God's design are displayed. The colors of skin and hair are like the freshness of the artist's oil paint palette. The face of an older person is lined and furrowed. There is the obvious evidence of the weight of years of living and of coping with the challenges of life. Gravity has mixed with grace to grow a different kind of beauty. The lined face reflects the sustaining beauty of the Master's presence. The colors of skin and hair are muted land the beauty emerges as from a pencil sketch. We tend to worship the unlined beauty of the young as if this were the only definition of beauty. Surely the beauty of a face that has weathered many seasons of life on the planet should be appreciated for its merits, as well. As I gazed around at the lined faces of life's veterans recently, I realized that their faces carried character, implied wisdom and spoke volumes about humility. There is one kind of beauty carried on the unlined faces of the young and there is another rich beauty etched on the faces of others. Each has been shaped and sculpted and fashioned by the Master's Hand and each can appreciate and benefit from the beauty of the other.
Job 12:9 Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind?
11 Does not the ear test words
And the mouth taste its food?
12 Wisdom is with aged men,
And with length of days, understanding.
blessings,
Rob Smith
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