Ecclesiastes 12:5-6-7 New English Translation (NET Bible)

because man goes to his eternal home,

and the mourners go about in the streets—

6 before the silver cord is removed,

or the golden bowl is broken,

or the pitcher is shattered at the well,

or the water wheel is broken at the cistern—

7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was,

and the life’s breath returns to God who gave it.

 

Aging like wine?

 

Aging is a mystery that is hardly understood.

Like wine in a bottle does it get better with time?

The bottle may be cracked and old in appearance

as in its solid cast the freedom’s content chimes.

 

 The inside of that bottle seems to be maturing

in ageless better flavor being refined for the call.

When one opens the bottle to share what is now precious

ready for the special guests who answer the Maker’s call.

 

 The wine is still the same even seems the bottle is aging

reminds me of a miracle that happens every day.

If every cell in my body renews every seven years

I’m pretty well over the hill at six, what is then to say?

 

Maybe that is why the youngster in me still survives.

I look at the world and marvel at the frailty of the “old”.

Who claw and grasp and climb the tree of adoration

for self, success and power like an infection brought by mold.

 

Never to be enjoyed by the folks who surround them

Seldom to be tasted by the sweetness of Life itself.

Only gall and bitter as an after-taste of mayhem

to be removed suddenly by the time the clock strikes twelve.

 

Jan Wienen