ELIZABETH TURNAGE | CONTRIBUTOR

Missionary Rose Marie Miller turned 100 years old on December 23, 2024. In an email update on January 1, 2025, she reflected on highlights of the previous year. Chief among them was a two-week trip to Southeast Asia, where she taught missionaries. In her teaching, she shared with the missionaries insights from Scripture, focusing on familiar characters like Adam and Eve, Sarah, and Hannah, demonstrating how “the gospel pervades all of Scripture.”

After returning home to London, Rose Marie fought a chest infection for the next two months. She wrote, “I was weak in body and soul and wasn’t sure I would make it to 100.” Describing this as a “time of testing,” she humbly explained, “I would not take credit for what God did.”

Few of us will live to be 100 years old; even fewer 100-year-olds will have the energy to travel internationally to teach the gospel. Yet, we will always be ambassadors for Christ; this calling comes with no retirement age.

The Role of Christ’s Ambassadors

By definition, an ambassador represents a country or organization and is tasked with creating relationships with foreign entities, promoting the interests of the home entity, and engaging in diplomacy. In 2 Corinthians 5:20, the apostle Paul describes himself and his fellow believers “ambassador(s) for Christ.” As Christ’s ambassadors, we represent Christ’s kingdom, our heavenly homeland, to those outside it. As Christ’s ambassadors, we promote the interests of our heavenly country by sharing its beauty with citizens of the world. As Christ’s ambassadors, we engage in diplomacy to advance the purposes of our heavenly country.

Representing the Kingdom of Christ even in Old Age

Even as gray hair emerges and wrinkles deepen, we are called to represent the kingdom of Christ. We represent our kingdom best when we embody the humility of Christ. While the world often encourages older people to have a sense of entitlement (demanding that their needs be met, expecting to be put first), the kingdom of Christ urges us, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3).

Although Scripture calls younger people to honor their elders (See Ex. 20:12; Eph. 6:2-3), older people in the kingdom of Christ are never entitled to become proud or selfish (See James 4:6). With humility, we won’t fret when others tend to marginalize us because of our age. With humility, we will acknowledge our weaknesses and graciously accept help when we need it, whether with driving, shopping, or managing finances. We best represent the interests of our kingdom when we remain humble and unselfish.

Promoting the Interests of Our Better Country

You may have heard the expression, “They’re so heavenly-minded they’re no earthly good.” But to be an effective ambassador for Christ, we must reverse this maxim: we want to be so heavenly minded we do a lot of earthly good.

What does it mean to be heavenly-minded? It’s to envision the future of the new heavens and new earth into this day, this moment, this story. It is to know that one day all things will be made new and to be involved in working toward that newness even today (See Rev. 21:5). While we may no longer swing hammers at a Habitat for Humanity workday, we can pray for and bake cookies for those who do. While we may no longer be able to “march for life,” we can pray for and pay for (if financially able) those who do. While we may no longer be able to host a neighborhood outreach, we teach the next generation what has worked well for us. In these ways and many others, we live as ambassadors for Christ, showing that we “are seeking a homeland,” and encouraging others to “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:14, 16).

Engaging in Diplomacy

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a diplomat as “a person who can deal with people in a sensitive and effective way.” As ambassadors for Christ, we engage in diplomacy by showing the love of Christ in word and deed. Entrusted with the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18), we are called to “seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14).

We engage in diplomacy by forgiving others readily and seeking forgiveness quickly. If adult children forget a birthday, we forgive them. If we lash out in frustration at our friends, we quickly seek forgiveness. We also engage in diplomacy by loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44). That neighbor upstairs who always plays loud music at night? We love her by bringing her a treat when we knock on her door to remind her of quiet hours. We also engage in diplomacy when our words, deeds, and thoughts focus on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable…whatever is lovely” (See Phil. 4:8). On social media and in social gatherings, we avoid gossip, choosing instead to speak of lovely things. These countercultural kingdom ways draw others to see and long for the beauty of our heavenly country.

Friends, while we have focused here on how older women can be ambassadors for Christ, you are never too young to take on this role. It is a calling for every season; it is a calling for every Christian.

Live today and every day in the esteemed occupation as an ambassador for Christ. Represent his kingdom in humility. Promote the kingdom’s interests as you envision the realities of the new heavens and new earth into this world’s broken places. Engage in diplomacy by loving and forgiving and focusing on the beauty of Christ. You are never too young or too old to be an ambassador for Christ.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash