There’s an old folktale about a woman who carried water home every day from a river using two buckets at either end of a long pole—one bucket new and solid, the other much older and cracked. When the woman got home, the new bucket was still full, but the old bucket almost empty. The old bucket felt badly and apologized. The woman turned and pointed back down the road and asked the old bucket, “Do you see all those flowers, growing on your side of the road? Every day you water them, and my walk to and from the river is always filled with beauty.”

We live in a world that worships and rewards youth—the young and solid, unscarred and efficient. Yet God’s Word clearly tells us of a righteous beauty that comes from the older and weaker, maybe even cracked and leaky. “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,” said the old songwriter, “they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon” (Psalm 92:12).

Granted, old is not always synonymous with wise, but the old contribute to our lives in ways the young can’t because they’ve lived a little longer, experienced a little more, and stand a little more rooted, flourishing in faith and trust in God. Such people “will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green” (v. 14).

Older adults in our lives continue to bear beautiful fruit. Let’s take the time to care and see it.