“The Blessing not Everyone Gets to Enjoy”

Isaiah 46:4 NIV “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

“Tell me about the girls’ mission trip,” Grandma Mabel said, her eyes sparkling as I set the bakery muffins on her familiar maple table. At 92, she still remembered every detail about her great-grandchildren’s lives.

“They’re exhausted but happy,” I replied, watching her carefully arrange her coffee cup with hands that trembled slightly from neuropathy. “The boys missed them terribly.”

“Of course they did. You raised them to love each other.” She smiled, settling into her chair with the same grace I’d watched for decades. “Now, wasn’t someone having a big birthday this week?”

I laughed. “Forty feels so… old, Grandma.”

Her expression grew gentle but firm. “Oh, honey. You know what I tell myself when this old body aches and I miss your Grandpa something fierce?”

I leaned forward, suddenly realizing I was about to receive wisdom I desperately needed.

“I thank the Lord for sustaining me through another day of pain, another wave of grief. Because aging?” She paused, her voice growing stronger. “Aging is a blessing not everyone gets to enjoy.”

Those words hit me like a revelation. Here sat a woman who’d buried her husband fourteen years ago, who lived with constant pain, yet radiated joy and gratitude. She wasn’t just surviving her 92 years—she was treasuring them.

“Every gray hair, every wrinkle,” she continued, “is proof God kept His promise to carry me another day. To see you grow up, get married, and become a mother. To hold my great-grandbabies.” Her eyes misted. “Not everyone gets that gift.”

As we sat surrounded by the comfortable quiet of her home, I mentally photographed this moment—her warm smile, the way morning light caught her face, the profound truth she’d just shared.

Later, when my husband asked how I felt about turning 40, her words echoed in my heart.

“Aging is the blessing not everyone gets to enjoy,” I told him. “I’m choosing to see this day as a gift.”

He grinned. “What self-help book did that come from?”

I winked back. “That wisdom came straight from Grandma Mabel.”

I still wish the dark circles under my eyes would disappear, and yes, I miss staying up late without consequences. But if the alternative is missing my children grow up, missing moments like this morning with Grandma, then I’ll gladly accept every gray hair and wrinkle as evidence of God’s faithfulness.

Today, I thank God that He allows me to experience the blessing that not everyone gets to enjoy.

*This blog post was first published on The Round Farmhouse Ministries in January 2026, as part of the Coffee and Convictions devotional series. Check out their Facebook page to read more encouraging devotionals like this one each weekday.