There is wisdom in listening to and learning from doctors and experienced caregivers. But Christians have the full resources of the all-wise God available to them — by God’s Spirit, through his word, and among his people. Generational ministry lives in the church, Christ’s body; we are meant to work together as we honor the previous generation and pass God’s truth to the next.

Recently, I enjoyed reconnecting with a friend from college who is now sixty-something years old (like me) and who cares for her elderly mom (like me). There are a lot of us! This friend described how she and her husband took her mother, a widow in declining health, into their home; they had thought the time would be short, but the years of care are stretching long. “We had all sorts of plans laid for our retirement years — travel and ministry and so forth,” said my friend, rather ruefully. “We just didn’t anticipate this.”

My friend loves her mom, but she is struggling with the weight of caring for her in her old age. The huge commitment of time, space, money, and emotional support somewhat ambushed her. It’s a story told often these days, in various versions, but with the same theme of figuring out how best to care for aging parents.

And the numbers of these mothers and fathers will only grow as baby boomers crowd the ranks of the elderly. From the world’s perspective, solutions to the problem can be found in improved government programs, retirement facilities, and healthcare provisions. Certainly, some of these solutions can help. From a Christian perspective, however, we believers have not a problem but an opportunity — an opportunity to live out God’s call to honor our parents.

What can we tell adult children in the church to help prepare them for this call to honor aging parents and elders? As one in the thick of learning the lessons (and the blessings) of honoring, I would suggest three main messages for the adult children among us.

 1. Look Ahead

The media is full of lies about the future. We adults can forget too easily that this vitamin supplement will not keep us (or our parents) forever young, and that investment will not give us (or our parents) unending security. Advertisements do not show the later stages of old age and death.

To see the whole story, we need to visit retirement communities or nursing homes — or hopefully churches! We as God’s people should be taking great pains to include, spend time with, and listen to the elderly in our church families. We need to know them — to the end. Younger generations need to witness firsthand what it looks like to obey God’s strong call to honor our parents and to respect the elders among us. (See, for example, Exodus 20:12; Leviticus 19:2–3, 32; Deuteronomy 32:6–7; and Proverbs 23:22; 30:17.)

God made us humans to live in generations, with one generation telling the next about the glory of God and the wonder of our salvation in Jesus Christ (Psalm 78:4). As we teach the Scriptures generation by generation in the church, we help younger people look ahead with open eyes. We must tell the whole story.

After the fall, God’s judgment of sin made the generational flow full of sorrow — including the sorrowful decay of bodies leading to physical death. Aging and death are not avoidable threats to our happiness; they are the wages of sin. They are not good and natural parts of Mother Nature’s flow.

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