Youthful in Old Age

 First off, sorry that I missed posting last week. We're back on track.

In Psalm 92, we often look to Joe in the words "The just shall flourish like the palm tree." Yet, if we continue with the psalm, I believe that we will learn more about him. The psalmist continues:

The just shall flourish like the palm tree,

shall grow like a cedar of Lebanon. 

Planted in the house of the LORD,

they shall flourish in the courts of our God.

They shall bear fruit even in old age,

they will stay fresh and green,

To proclaim: “The LORD is just; 

my rock, in whom there is no wrong.”

What struck me particularly was "They shall bear fruit even in old age, they will stay fresh and green." For a while now, I have found myself going back and forth between seeing Joe as a young or elderly man. For most of history, most artists portrayed him as an elderly man following the tradition of several ancient apocryphal writings; recently, however, there seems to be a growing trend to depict him as a young man. Yet, this passage seems to indicate that Joe was an old man.

Was he young or old according to the reckoning of time? Who knows... I guess what's important is that he embodied the best of both. Either he was a young man with the venerability of old age, or he was an old man with the youthfulness of prime. I'm sure that he had a spark in his step and a sparkle in his eyes.