A Prayer For Those In The Sunset Years Of Life

 

 

Sovereign God, creator and sustainer of heaven and earth, this week we want to lift into  Your presence those who have reached the sunset years of life.  Some are in hospitals, some are in nursing homes, some are under hospice care and all have this one thing in common, life here is ebbing away.   We thank You for the precious gift of life.  No one, if they had at the time of their birth the choice of life or abortion would have chosen abortion.  Even if they had known at that time of every heartache and hurt, every disappointment and difficulty, every failure and frailty, every gene and germ in their body, they still would have chosen to be born.  Yes, Lord, we thank You with them for the gift of life.

 

But now as the years have taken their toll, sight has dwindled, memory has diminished, strength declined and the end seems if not near, surely certain.  Grant that they may find peace and solace not only in Your presence but even more in Your promise “that great is our reward in heaven.”  May they find comfort not in looking forward to death, but in looking through death and viewing the other side which awaits them.  Death is not the end but the beginning, the doorway from a world where dreams and adventures fade and strength and vitality leave us, to a world where dreams and adventure forever expands and where health and happiness ever abounds.  Grant them the grace to look beyond death to the eternal and everlasting life in the present heaven and in the resurrected earth that awaits them.

 

As life is closing in on them, grant that they may look through death and see the other side.  This life has been coach fare, but when we arrive at the gate called death we will be promoted to first class.  Grant that none may look back nostalgically at the wonderful times in the past but rather anticipate with joy the days and years of eternity which lie ahead.

 

We confess that too often we think of our time here on earth as “life” and we call that which follows the “after” life, but in reality our time spent on planet earth might better be thought of as the “before” life and that which follows “life.”  Father, grant that whether we be on death’s bed or at the climax of the “before” life that we might find our comfort and peace by looking through death, not at it.  Then will be fulfilled the words of the Psalmist who wrote: “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”  Thank You Jesus.        Amen