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This
article appears courtesy of Rev
Magazine.
Looking for a Gandalf
by Dan Kimball
Turn on your television and you’re bombarded with
ads generally featuring good-looking, peppy young people
selling youthful products. Or if you’re watching
the television shows for the over-60 crowd, you see older
people selling products that make you look, feel, and
act younger. Most of our major influencers in the entertainment
and sports world are youthful. And the celebrities that
are aging spend lots of money on cosmetic surgery to keep
them looking young. Wrinkles are bad, gray hair is taboo—youth
is everything.
Sadly, in most movies and on television sitcoms, senior
citizens are generally either ignored entirely, portrayed
as out-of-touch, or in many ways somewhat mocked as the
crazy grandmother or grumpy grandfather. However, with
the first installment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of
the Rings trilogy, which was watched by millions, gray
hair and old age may be getting some respect again.
Gandalf is the elderly, gray-haired wizard in The Fellowship
of the Ring. But, instead of being clumsy and forgetful,
we finally have an elder seen as someone who’s respected
and has a life-long gathering of wisdom to share with
those who are younger. Even though this is merely a fictional
story, it’s something I personally hope will communicate
to the masses that older people can have great value and
something to contribute to the younger people.
The Bible clearly honors those who’ve walked with
God through their lives. Proverbs 16:31 says, “Gray
hair is a crown of splendor” and we see many times,
such as in Psalm 145:4, that “one generation will
commend your works to another.” We need gray-haired
people to teach us what it’s like to walk with God
for many years.
Yet in our churches, we often only highlight the new and
the upcoming, and neglect those who’ve known God
longer than most of us have been alive. We also miss out
when the church sets up programs to keep the old and the
young separate all the time.
I’m glad to see an older, gray-haired character
such as Gandalf being portrayed to the emerging culture
and generations as one who’s respectable and passes
down wisdom. I believe that emerging generations are hungering
to know a “Gandalf.” I hope that we’ll
seek out in our churches the real-life Gandalfs so we
can have the biblical wisdom and life experience that
only comes through experience passed down to the younger
generations.
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