John Koenig, a former professor at Union Theological Seminary, wrote in his sensitive essay The Older Person's Worth in the Eyes of God that in Luke's Gospel:

New Things happen to older people...[They] receive a vital ministry to perform for Israel, precisely in their last days. In fact, it is only in old age that they come to experience their true vocation...

In Luke's treatment of older people we do not find the conventional expectation encountered in most cultures...that the aged are primarily bearers and guardians of ancient wisdom. No, according to Luke, God chooses old people as bearers and proclaimers of the New Creation. They are visionaries, futurists, people charismatically gifted with a clearer picture of God's unfolding plan than their younger brothers and sisters.

Paul's New Testament letters present elderly persons as trailblazers and adventurers in God's creation. Paul himself was 60 when he planned his new and most extensive ministry in Spain (Rom. 15:22-29). Summing up his findings about old and young in scripture, John Koenig gives these comments:

The young see visions, they are intoxicated by novelty. Age helps them to distinguish between true and false novelty - to see the "big picture" of God's plan for salvation..

In spite of losses and physical disability, degeneration is not the core of reality. For Christians, the really real is transformation, a daily re-sensitizing of ourselves to the ... goodness of God out of which new ministries by older persons can emerge. No one is too old to experience a blossoming of charismatic gifts for ministry. No one's life is too far gone to become a place for the Spirit's empowering self-discolsure. (Affirmative Aging, pp. 28-29).