The country singer, Alan Jackson, sings a song titled, “The Older I Get.” In the song, there is one line that says if he found the Fountain of Youth, he wouldn’t drink a drop. He went on to sing that he is thankful for the life he has been given and in that good life, he has become more thankful as his years on Earth have advanced.

We don’t need to live a life motivated by the spirit of the Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon, whose life search was motivated by the hope of discovering the elusive Fountain of Youth. He never found such a fountain because it doesn’t exist. Like Ponce de Leon, many are searching for the extension of this life causing us to pass by the very things that make this life good and give us hope for a future beyond this earthly existence.

There should be no fear of death for those who trust the Lord. There is no magic fountain. When our natural bodies cease to exist, we are going home to the fullness of life. We are not dying but transitioning to something so much better that the fear of death can no longer have its hold on us. This is what it means to age gracefully.

The writer of Hebrews gets to the point of who and what makes us search for our personal Fountain of Youth, “We have been set free from the fear of death, – a fear empowered by the devil himself,  Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2: 14-15). Following Jesus sets us free from a fear of death because we are no longer living under a fear that is motivated by the devil and will rob us of our peace in this life.

John wrote about what it means to live a fearless life, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18.) The part of that verse that says “made perfect in love” reveals a process of life. The older we get, the freer we should become because Jesus is freeing us from the very things that produce a fear of death. 

The aging process is meant to be a life of increasing peace because the love of God is driving out fear from our thinking and how we choose to live our lives. It creates an expectation of what is to come, not a fear of seeing our bodies aging. It will free us from the search for a personal Fountain of Youth so that we can live a truly good life and expect that goodness to increase in our passing when we will finally stand before our Redeemer and be embraced by His perfect love.