Ch
arles Schulz said it well, “Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed.” Age is something everyone deals with differently. To the very young, their only hope is to get older. Teens feel there is little left to learn in life. When we reach our 30s, we begin to see the wisdom that comes with age. And when we finally reach maturity we feel the contentment that age can bring. Someone once said that “nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
Caleb was a man who never lost his youth. His enthusiasm was as rich and vibrant at 85 years as it was when he was 20. We would all do well to follow the pattern of Caleb, the man who found the fountain of youth!
Caleb is first mentioned as one of the 12 spies who were sent to search out the land of Canaan. The Israelites were ready to enter the land, but they needed more information. Word was brought back that the land was fertile but the enemies were intimidating. Only Joshua and Caleb felt that God’s people would be victorious, because the Lord would be with them and bless their efforts. But their words were not heeded, so the Lord punished his faithless people with 40 long years of wilderness wandering.
We hear of Caleb once again, 40 years later, when he approaches Joshua with an unusual request: “So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. . . . Now give me this hill country. . . . You yourself heard then that the Anakites [considered to be giants in the land] were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said” (14:10-12).
Just give me a mountain. The Lord and I will manage the rest. Caleb was a remarkable man! We know what he was thinking. It was the very same thoughts he had at 40. His mind and heart were occupied with a faith in his Lord that never grew old. It was as vibrant and active the day he turned 85 as when he was a youth.
How do we know this? There is a remarkable similarity in the Bible references that mention Caleb.
Numbers 14:24, “Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly.”
Numbers 32:12, “Not one except Caleb and Joshua . . . followed the Lord wholeheartedly.”
Deuteronomy 1:36, “I will give [Caleb] and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.”
Joshua 14:8, “I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.”
Joshua 14:9, “You [Caleb] have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.”
Joshua 14:14, “So Hebron has belonged to Caleb, . . . because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly.”
What an interesting choice of words. Might that be the key to Caleb’s youthful enthusiasm? Might that be why Caleb could fight enemies, climb mountains, and remove giants? It was Caleb’s wholehearted faith in his Savior. His eyes were always focused on the Lord, not on himself, his aches and pains, or his advancing years. Caleb found his fountain of youth, and it served him well his entire life. Perhaps we can learn a great lesson from Caleb. Perhaps we can also drink from Caleb’s fountain when we serve the Lord wholeheartedly!
Dear Lord, give me the strength to live each day wholeheartedly for you just as Caleb did. Amen.
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