I've been reading a book called Eve and The Choice Made in Eden, by Beverly Campbell.  It's a really interesting book that brings to light a lot of things that have gone misunderstood for centuries regarding what happened in the Garden of Eden.  It discusses everything from the true definition of the word "helpmeet"-even with or equal to, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (not a subordinate, as the word itself implies)- to the differences between sinning and transgressing.  Anyway, I'm not even halfway through yet and it's a really great book, if anyone's looking for something to read.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about a quote the book referenced by Elder Russel M. Nelson that struck me as fascinating:  "As we grow older, our broad chests and narrow waists have a tendency to trade places. We get wrinkles, lose color in our hair-even the hair itself-to remind us that we are mortal children of God, with a 'manufacturer's guarantee' that we shall not be stranded upon the earth forever."

The author continues to say, "This blessed promise of a return home finds us retracing the same steps upward that Adam and Eve took downward."  But that really struck a chord with me.  This blessed promise of a return home.  How many of us today actually think of growing old in that way?  That losing our hair and getting wrinkles and aging period is something to be celebrated, because it's a sign to us that Heavenly Father would not leave us stranded in this life forever?
So much of our culture today is consumed with youth and beauty.  Growing old is (supposedly) one of the most terrible things that could happen to a person, so the industry has come up with many-a-product to help turn back time and fight off wrinkles as long as possible.  It's sad to think that if more people realized that death itself is just the next step in our eternal progression (and not the end of our existence, as some speculate), aging would be celebrated, not just evaded.

Labels: aging, beauty, Beverly Campbell, death, eden, eve, growing old, life, Russell M. Nelson, youth