The New Oldest Generation

Last weekend I met up with two girl cousins on my mom’s side for our third biennial visit since we turned fifty.  As young kids, we had seen each other almost every summer at Grandma’s house.  Then the occasional visit in our teen years.  And hardly at all for the next three decades. It seems we weren't the only ones to let space creep between us when the matriarch was gone.

The first visit we had a lot of catching up to do.  We discovered common habits and shared quirks. We swapped stories our parents told us about growing up with the aunts and uncle who made us cousins. Two of us had lost the parent that connected us, but still had our other parent.

Two years later on the second visit, we talked about our role reversals. We each had responsibility for some level of care for our remaining parent.

The third visit last weekend was different. Since the last time we had gathered, we had each lost our last parent.  Why did that make things so different?  Because we are now them.  We are no longer the middle generation but the oldest generation.  We can no longer go to them for memories and advice.  Others come to us for those things now.

That feels a little strange – it’s another new normal, which does not yet feel normal. Some days it feels like holes carved out of our family. And other days it feels like everything is whole, exactly as it’s supposed to be now.

On either day, I am confident in He who sustains me as I walk out life as the oldest generation.  It is the same one who Isaiah spoke of.

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. [Isaiah 46:4]

My parents made me, sustained and carried me for a time and sometimes had to rescue me. But my heavenly Father has assumed that role forever. Because He has, I can gray in restful peace that He will continue to carry me, this new oldest generation.