In recent months I’ve been noticing more and more comments about aging in general conversation. For instance, a friend confided that the health of a mutual acquaintance was “in decline.” Someone else asked me if an individual we both knew, who had health problems, had been given an “expiration date”! Statements such as “I’m having a senior moment”—a moment of forgetfulness—suggesting loss of mental acuity, are common. Sometimes we use these jokingly or without thinking, but even this reinforces the belief that decline is inevitable.

Decline shouldn’t be accepted or expected. The word decline relative to God’s creation certainly wasn’t in Christ Jesus’ vocabulary. His teachings reflected the expectation of perpetual advancement and renewal, and his healings demonstrated Christ, divine Truth, revealing to human thought in every age that this is possible and natural. Rather than give in to the belief that expiration and deterioration are normal, he protested this notion by healing the sick and even raising the dead. His thought rested on God, the one divine, infinite Mind—the creator of the universe—who maintains His creation in a constant state of health and harmony.

God, our ever-present friend, is the source of perpetual health and joy.