The Curse

My 98 year-old grandmother is spending the month in an assisted living facility. She is in the section with other residents who have dementia.

It is hard and sad to see the decline she is experiencing. On a visit last week, my feelings were compounded as I witnessed the other residents in various stages of their struggle. It really felt tender towards Grandmother and the others as they wrestle with the Curse, the consequence of sin.

It seems to me that that the world system struggles with the elderly, especially those who are not well. You will never see a dementia patient used in advertising like a baby or young model. It is as if the world, in its rejection of God, really isn’t all that eager to embrace the effects of the rejection and the subsequent curse.

1993: Stephanie with Granddad and Grandmother

“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:19-23).