The Elusive Fountain of Youth

Don't we all remember our history lesson of how 16th century conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon went in search of The Fountain of Youth?

The latest figure I could find from a recent Google search put the estimate as high as $50 billion dollars spent in 2009 on anti aging products.  It seems many of us are not aging too gracefully.  I have made my own little contribution to that $50 billion dollar amount spent on anti aging products, not realizing how much until I gathered some of them up for this blog photo. 

It's sad that many think they can find immortality or perfect skin in a cream, potion or elixer.  I admit I think some products do make a difference in improving one's skin condition, mostly by moisturizing.  When I worked for a high end cosmetic company, we would demonstrate a cream on the back of one of our hands. After repeatedly doing this for a period of time, there was a slight improvement in the hand that had the creams applied compared to the other hand. How can we not notice that it seems every company has The One cream that will eliminate wrinkles.  They all can't be right!

If God allows us to live long enough on earth, we will have some wrinkles.  It's a sign that hopefully we have lived a long, productive and healthy life. Truthfully, who has time to worry about wrinkles?  Let us be reminded of James 4:13-14:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."

P.S.  Juan Ponce de Leon, in 1513,  was one of the first Europeans to set foot on the American mainland, he never found the Fountain of Youth.