Keith Welch: You old sap!
A woman purchased a very expensive line of cosmetics that were guaranteed to make her look years younger. She applied the miracle products and then asked her husband, “Darling, honestly, what age would you say I am?”
The husband looked her over and responded. “Judging by your skin, 20. Your hair makes you look 18 and you have a 25-year-old figure.”
“Oh, you’re a flatterer,” the wife gushed.
“Hey, wait a minute,” he interrupted. “I haven’t added them up yet.”
The television show, “Hee-Haw,” has a group singing these words: “Gloom, despair and agony on me, oooh! If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.”
I have found life and how we approach it is often a matter of perspective. Art Linkletter once said, “I want to die young, at an old age.”
The familiar words from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 state: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” There is a time to be born and a time to die. There is a time to weep and a time to laugh. There is a time to mourn and a time to dance.
This portion of scripture indicates living is about a complete life. The problem is we may only focus on the gloom, despair, agony, or bad parts of our life. But there are also times of healing, laughing, dancing, and celebrations.
If we are going to die young at an old age, we must live a complete life. This means we acknowledge and accept all the differing aspects of life.
Things do change as we mature. Someone wrote: “I can live with my arthritis, and my dentures fit my fine, I can see with my bifocals, but I sure do miss my mind!”
I enjoy the words of Psalm 92:12-14 which read: “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing.” (New King James Version)
Another version, the New American Translation renders verse 14: “They will still yield fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and very green.”
The descriptive word meaning for green and flourishing is luxuriant. A proper rendering may be that as we mature in the Lord we will be "luxuriant old saps!"
I attended a Salvation Army summer camp in Michigan, U.S. when I was young which always included one evening program around council ring fire. They had just placed new tree logs in the circle pattern for us to sit on during the program. These logs still had fresh sap oozing out and it would stick to our clothes as we sat down.
Syrup for pancakes is important. Besides the good taste, it sometimes drips onto my hands. My attempts to clean the syrup off with a paper napkin will often leave small pieces of the paper from the napkin adhered to my fingers. The best way to get rid of this sap which is on my fingers is soap and water. But I often forget this until I am trying to pull off those napkin pieces.
Sap is life, but sap is also sticky. It is seen in our smiles. It is experienced in the way we treat other people. It is also seen in the way we conduct our lives and in our walk with Jesus. Our lives will affect others as our example and actions stick to them.
If we invite others to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8), we will need to show them we celebrate a complete life with all its varied "ups" and "downs."
Sap signifies life. So, if someone calls you an ‘old sap’ the proper response would be, “Thank you — but I am a luxuriant old sap.”
— Keith J. Welch is a resident of Holland. He has an MFA in creative writing and is a retired Salvation Army Major. Contact him at Keith.welch16@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Keith Welch: You old sap!
