The valor of manhood is fading

In his sermon this morning, the pastor in the church we have recently begun to attend used a quote from Tolkien to support one of his points. The sermon was part of a post-Easter series he's currently doing on God's desired restoration of creation and how the resurrection of Christ is linked to it.

This particular passage from The Lord of the Rings describes the appearance of King Aragorn upon the moment of his death:

"Then a great beauty was revealed in him, so that all who after came there looked on him with wonder; for they saw the grace of his youth, and the valor of his manhood, and the wisdom and majesty of his age were all blended together. And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world." 

The point the pastor made is that this shows Tolkien's view of what we will be like at the restoration of all things. We will not be simply all youthful innocence, or captured just at the peak of our adult vigor, or fully wearing the weight & maturity of years, but... have all three together. :) That is a happy concept, and at some level it rings true. While human life may have three stages (youth, adult, senior), and they may differ in terms of physical characteristics (speed, strength, patience) or emotional ones (zeal, endurance, wisdom), why should we not expect to carry all of these into eternity in equal measure?

Regular readers will know that I informally divide these stages of life into the years from birth to age 28, from 29 to 56, and from age 57 to death at around 84, aligning with the months/seasons of the year (beginning in March and lasting about 7 years per month). Thus, March through June are the months of youth, the months of growth and flowering beauty. The months of July through October are the months of adulthood, the months of production and enduring green vigor. Finally, the months of November through February are the months of harvest, of ripeness and brilliant decline.

As I make my way gently into November, I think about leaving production and green vigor behind, looking forward to the harvest of the years and the preserving & distilling of it into wisdom (God willing...). But I can't help feeling a twinge of regret that in order to move inevitably into this new stage of life, I will increasingly leave the prior one behind. I kind of like the "valor of my manhood", that time of strength and vigor! :)

I see clearly (daily!) that both are in decline; I also see that it must be so. As Ecclesiastes says, this is what life "under the sun" is like. But, it's also good to know from the same source that "youth and vigor are meaningless". (Eccl. 11:10) Then I don't feel so bad about moving from chapter 11 to chapter 12.  ;)