Why was Helen Mirren called a “queen among mortals”?

Seventy-two-year-old actress Helen Mirren made headlines recently when she released pictures of herself before and after she was made up for her appearance at Sunday night’s Academy Awards. Time magazine claimed that the candid pictures “prove she’s a queen among mortals.”

Aging is a decision as well as a reality.

Scientists have confirmed that exercise in old age prevents the immune system from declining. After following 125 long-distance cyclists, some now in their 80s, they found that they had the immune systems of twenty-year-olds.

On the other hand, we can miss some of life’s greatest opportunities at any age.

A note written by Albert Einstein to an Italian woman scientist who declined to meet him sold at auction this week in Jerusalem. Einstein wrote the note to Elisabetta Piccini, a chemistry student who lived one floor above his sister. However, as the auction house explained, she was “introverted and too shy to meet with such a famous person.”

Live life in chapters

Philosopher Elton Trueblood encouraged us to live life in chapters. The present chapter is made possible by the previous one and leads to the next. Be present where you are, remembering that all of God there is, is in this moment. But also look for ways God is redeeming the present for the eternal.

Exodus 17 illustrates Trueblood’s advice: “All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord” (v. 1a).

As they followed God’s leading, however, “there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink’” (vv. 1b-2). If the Lord was indeed leading his people “by stages,” why would he lead them here?

God’s direction to Moses provides our answer: “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will…