On Facebook this morning there was a list of “friends” who have birthdays today. I scrolled down the list and wished a few Happy Birthday. I chuckled when I saw how old Facebook says one of those people is because that is not possible. Anyway how old you are seems to have become the theme of the day. While teaching Kids First Church today, I asked if the anyone knew what the word generation meant. One young man explained a generation is the years between a father and son. Correct a generation is usually considered to be about 30 years. And then I added to further explain the concept that between one of our youngest Kids First Church and me there were actually two generations because her parents were just a little older than my daughters. “Wow!” explained that same young man and then he added “how old are you?”. To which another young man said “Don’t answer that”. “No, that is okay” and I proceeded to tell them how old I am. There was discussion about if I was really that old to which I said Yes, I don’t lie to you. Anyway we eventually continued with the lesson and as the parents were signing the children out I was suddenly aware of the fact that the discussion on the ride home would probably be about “how old Miss Ann is”. Oh well!!
Two random thoughts:
- The Bible mentions people who lived to be 600 years old. I have often wondered at what age were you a grown up?
- Have you noticed that when children tell you their age they mention how many years and a 1/4 or 1/2 or 3/4? At what age do we stop doing that?
The answer to question two is that we only do so temporarily. The older one gets they revert to adding the time on as they become proud of old age. But at what age does that begin?