The Lord knows them that are His. And, Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. – II Timothy 2:19

      I have a friend who works at a nursing home. One of her charges is a feisty one hundred and four year old lady. She’ll zip down the halls saying, “Get out of my way, I’m a busy woman.”
      One day she fell and as the male attendants were lifting her back to her feet she was heard to say, “I’m a little old lady, but I’m a cute little old lady.”
      Another time she came up to my friend and asked, “Can I still have sex?” She had developed a crush on a younger man (he was in his eighties) and she wanted to seduce him.
      When one of the black nurses was late in performing her duties for this lady, the nurse was slapped in the face and called the vile “N” word. The nurse fled the room in tears and reported the incident to my friend. The octogenarian was subsequently reprimanded for her inappropriate behavior.
      The lady responded arrogantly, “I am a good Christian woman!” She had to be coerced into a reluctant apology.
      We are saved by grace and not according to any spiritual development we can attain in this life, as Jesus’ parable of the vineyard attests; (Matthew 20:1-14).The workers who had labored or grew in the Lord all their lives, were given the same wages, or salvation, as those who had opportunity to labor just a little. But as I examined the fruit of this old woman’s response and attitudes, (attitudes that could easily be a reflection of my own heart at times,) it made me more determined to follow Jesus even more closely. I don’t want to be the same miserable person I was at twenty-four at one hundred and four if I should live so long. If we are saved, we have been predestined to be conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This is the goal of the Christian life. If we truly belong to God, we will be actively seeking to walk in the footsteps of the Lord we profess to love.

Copyright 2009 by H.D. Shively