In the naive days of my youth, I fancied that God’s command, “You shall not covet,” referred only to my neighbor’s physical possessions—his big screen TV, his fancy four-wheel-drive SUV, or his six-figure salary.
Although I don’t remember ever wishing that I had my neighbor’s wife, I suppose that Moses’ embellishment of the original command against coveting would encompass illicit desire of that sort. In my case, I’ve always been glad God gave me the fine lady I got. And in a few instances I’ve been downright grateful that God did not give a particular neighbor’s woman.
But what I’m trying somewhat clumsily to confess is the fact that until I reached the sixth decade of my life, my view of what it means to covet was myopic.
I have always understood that I violate God’s restriction on covetousness whenever I long to have anything that belongs to you.
Until my youth vanished, however, it never occurred to me that I might covet yours.
Until my stamina diminished, I had not thought of envying you for your endless supply of energy.
Until most of the sand in the hourglass of my life drained to the bottom, I had never felt a twinge of jealousy toward a young colleague whose career and life experiences still lie mostly in his future.
Is this a problem for aging women who see their youthful glamor slipping away? Do they covet the complexion of faces yet unmarred by time?
Good health I have taken for granted. But as the deterioration that goes with aging sets in, it becomes depressingly clear to me that all the hearing aids and false teeth and thick lenses and other mechanical gizmos my doctors prescribe won’t ever replace the parts of me that are wearing out.
On some days–days when my physical losses are especially troublesome—the sin of covetousness sneaks up on me, and I am surprised to find myself resenting the able body of some athlete on TV who is doing something I’ll never be able to try to do again.
All of this leaves me a bit amazed. Nobody ever explained to me before that covetousness is primarily an old man’s sin.
Come to think of it—when the apostle Paul wrote about learning to covet, he was about my age. Hmmm.