We all like to laugh at creatures like the armadillo, the duck-billed platypus and those deep-water fish that look like they’re perishing from some horrible disease even when they’re perfectly healthy. But funny-looking animals are just one example of God’s sense of humor. Did you ever wonder if God is secretly chuckling with amusement when he knits people together with massive unibrows and ears like satellite dishes? And why not? Isn’t he entitled to do as he wishes with his own creation? Absolutely. Even if they have trouble getting dates.

Even attractive people take on features that aren’t part of the prototype but emerge with age, such as the migration of hair from the top of the head to the nose and ears, strange growths in prominent places and other bodily changes that keep our cosmetic surgeons busy and boost Rogaine stock dividends. As to the last, although I’m losing my hair, I can’t bring myself to spend $39.95 for a 90-day supply of Grecian Formula and then make a fool out of myself smearing it on my expanding forehead every night in front of the bathroom mirror. It can only be a pipe dream, and it will be too painful when it doesn’t produce results—especially if I’ve kept the receipts. When I began losing my hair, I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to do any extreme comb-overs. And a wig? No. There’s no way I’m going to go around wearing a dead badger on my head. 

God is sovereign over all of it. He made the call that men who go bald would retain that silly strip of hair that wraps around the back of the head, which serves only to highlight the fact that the rest of the hair is gone. I wonder if God enjoys a little laugh when he sees men in front of their mirrors carefully positioning their diminishing locks over their foreheads, the wispy strands looking more like brittle snakes than hair. Perhaps he allows this sort of thing to help people avoid taking themselves too seriously. Some might question if baldness was really necessary. But God shows mercy in the midst of it; just think how difficult it would be for a bald guy if, instead of going away gradually, his hair fell out all at once—especially if it happened just as he was sitting down for a dinner date with a pretty woman.

No matter how painful the aging process gets, I can’t help but see the disintegration of our bodies as a blessing. Just think how bloated the human ego would be if we looked like 20-year-olds right up until our funerals. Regardless of what we lose in our passage through life, we ought to be grateful for the blessings we still enjoy. The best things in life don’t disappear with old age.