Wednesdays in the World - Old People Kissing

Ever seen an old couple kiss? (By the way, I'm defining "old" here as older than you by at least 30 years....) We'll, it's gross. Seriously. As far as I can remember (and I blocked out a lot growing up) my parents never kissed. Because parents kissing is wrong. I'm pretty sure there's some part of 1 John that says something about that. Now, I have child who's going to be born here in a few weeks, and that'll make me a parent. And I realize that me kissing my wife will contradict my argument here. But that's different. Because it's me. And me kissing isn't gross. But my parents kissing - super-dry-heave-gross. The stork brought me. End of story.

My wife sees an old couple holding hands or hugging and she says "Oh, that's sooooo cute." I don't know why being old automatically makes you cuter, but most girls, from what I gather, think old people doing anything that we "young" (and by "young" I mean your age....) people normally do qualifies as cute. For example - me holding hands with my wife - not cute. Old man holding hands with his old wife - cute. Me dancing - definitely not cute. Old people dancing - cute. My checking my email - not cute. My grandma checking her email (true story) - cute as a button on a teddy bear held by a 2 year old girl with pig tails.

I hope to be a crotchety old man. I want to yell at dogs from my front porch call people "whipper-snappers." Holding hands and slow dancing is for sissies.... right?

Well.... it turns out that the older people get, the more the simplist act carries weight. Take this for example - Prehistoric Lovers Found Locked in Eternal Embrace.


They found really old skeletons in Italy that were fossilized while they were hugging. Now, without getting into a debate about creation vs. evolution and whether or not they really are 6,000 years old and blah blah blah, this image carries a ton of weight. I mean this is old people kissing on steroids. Set for all time in rock - this man loved this woman. He is off the cute scale because for the last 6,000 years, he has cuddled with his wife (I'm going to assume here that because they literally beat the "'till death do us part" thing that they were married...").

I'm trying to be a crotchety old man with God. I wish I could grow cold and stop thinking about Him and how He has pursued me. If you take the obvious analogy here, with the church as the bride of Christ - Jesus has us in a 6,000 year hug, and He won't let go. Earthquakes, tectonic plate movement, nothing can separate us from the love of God. He knows I have tried to pass it off as gross - it's not cool for old loves to show it. But God blows off cool and gross and draws me close and holds on while I kick and scream. He tells me, "get over yourself - I love you." I wish I were more comfortable being hugged. But God doesn't change. He holds on. Even for thousands of years.

So I'm thinking about that this week. And I'm thinking that maybe old people kissing aren't so gross after all. And maybe I should stop trying to be cool and let Him in. And maybe I'll go hug my wife and kiss her in front of my almost born child. And maybe my parents do kiss. - No. No that can't be.