Beautiful Crazing

I believe we need to revamp the way we think about aging.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a post by an actress who played in a popular television series of the 80s. At the time, she was just in her late teens, which means she is now in her late 50s. I have to admit that upon seeing her, I was taken aback a bit by how much she has aged, but her words captivated me, and I kept reading.

She went on to reveal the cruel criticism she has received because of her current looks. She has chosen to age naturally, which is something I personally feel should be lauded, and, if not lauded, at least respected. However, as someone whose youthful appearance forty years ago made her somewhat a public heartthrob, the public now seems to feel entitled in passing judgment on how well, or how poorly, they perceive her aging to be.

She has authored a book on the subject, and I'm glad she has. There is an unhealthy obsession with youth in our culture today... capturing it, keeping it, preserving it, sometimes at extreme lengths and costs. There is also currently a kind of growing support from the media for aging actresses and public figures who have also chosen to bypass surgery and age gracefully. How did we get here? Why would it ever be necessary to have support for an individual's right to age the way they choose? When did aging naturally become a crime or such a topic of public debate?

Yeah, we definitely need to revamp the way we think about aging.

With age come many other things. Some not so great, true enough, but some that are actually quite wonderful. Age creates patina, even within individuals, and patina is both interesting and beautiful. The thing about patina is that it can only be created over time. Use and utility are the tools by which it comes to be. The longer we live, the more we experience, the greater our bank of life lessons, the more patinated we become, and the deeper and richer the color that defines us.

I have in my dining room a glass hutch. Sitting on display on shelves within are China dishes that were given to us as wedding gifts decades ago. They are as pristine now as they were the day they were purchased thirty-nine years ago. One would be hard-pressed to find a nick, a scratch, a divot, or any discoloration anywhere among them. In contrast, atop the hutch sits an old ironstone pitcher and wash basin that must be at least a hundred years old. Both within the pitcher and at the base of the bowl is crazing, that intricate webbing of crackled glaze that lets the brown of aging inside.

Can you take a guess as to which of these is my favorite?

A thing of utility is a thing of beauty. It is beautiful mostly because it has fulfilled... and continues to fulfill... the purpose for which it was created. The fact that it has been of service hundreds, perhaps thousands of times over scores of years has made the marks of its use that much more precious, that much more valued. The China dishes in my hutch were made for a purpose as well, but they have never really fulfilled it. They sit, preserving their utility, being admired only for their unblemished appearance.

Life is like that, isn't it? You and I were created for a purpose. God the Father had a plan in place for our lives. He created us to be useful, to further the Kingdom at large, to help our neighbor, to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a hurting world. When we do that, when we go about trying our best to fulfill His mission for our life, we're gonna get a little worn. Our utility is going to begin showing a bit more on our faces. Our hands will bear more the signs of planting seeds and harvesting crops. The rougher edges of our nature are going to soften as the Holy Spirit works on our hearts to help us become more like Jesus.

Why would we want to resist the chance for a patina like that?!

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying we shouldn't care about our person at all or that we shouldn't try to take care of ourselves. I try to keep in shape. I enjoy getting a cute haircut and buying a new dress as much as the next gal. I do my best to eat healthier more times than not. I slather on Oil of Olay just as I have since my teens, and I wear a bit of makeup, but none of these things define me one way or another. And... none of these things are going to keep me from aging. What they can help me do is to keep keeping on for as long as the Lord needs me... for as long as He puts people in my path and around me who need me... and in doing so, a little crazing is gonna happen, and I'm ok with that.

I don't think any of us really want to be that servant who was given the one talent. He was so concened with preserving what he had been given by the Master, that he went and buried it. When the Master returned, he was given back the one talent, unused, unscathed, pristine, as it had been given him, thinking the Master would appreciate the gesture. He couldn't have been more wrong.

We are gifted these lives of ours by our Maker to be used, to be fruitful. Using them for the purpose He designed will create patina and crazing, but to the One in whose eyes alone it really matters, that crazing, that patina will be deep and rich. It will look more like Jesus, and it will be...

beautiful.

"Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

- Proverbs 31:30