Longevity?

January 28th, 2023| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Talk about long life. This guy, Jonathan, turned 190 years of age last month!

Jonathan is Seychelles Giant Tortoise hatched in the Georgian era and is the oldest known living land animal on Earth and the oldest ever recorded chelonian. He lives in a British overseas territory, St. Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic.

The world’s oldest tortoise has lived through two world wars, at least forty US Presidents, the Scopes Monkey Trials, the rise and fall of the British Empire, the Depression Era, founding of MacDonalds, the inventions of car, plane, TV, internet, etc.

He was apparently born in the early 1800s. “Apparently,” because Jonathan’s age is an estimation from shell measurements documented from a photograph taken in 1882, at which point he was fully mature and at least 50 years old.

has lived for most of his life in St. Helena, a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Joe Hollins, the retired St. Helena vet, who still cares for the tortoise said:

It has been a privilege to look after the elderly animal, a magnificent specimen. I do think he’s fabulous actually, he’s a great animal. And as a vet—what greater privilege is there than to be looking after the oldest known living land animal in the world? I mean, how often does that happen?”

And what does the animal do these days?

He’s just been here, enjoying himself.”

At the start of 2022, Jonathan achieved the Guinness World Records title for the world’s oldest living land animal and this month, he has also been named as the oldest tortoise ever.

To celebrate his 190th birthday, residents from across the island came together last month to honor Jonathan over three days at a birthday party at the Governor’s House where he had a “chat” with Governor Nigel Phillips and wife, as they fed him his favorite veggies. Oh, and a special stamp was also on sale alongside other memorabilia which islanders were able to win during novelty tortoise-themed games.

Everyone wants to live long. Even the psalmist. But in Psalm 102, his biggest problem was God himself.

For I have eaten ashes like bread,
and I have mixed my drink with weeping
in the face of Your indignation and Your rage,
for You have lifted me and thrown me away.
Psalm 102:9–10

And he is miserable:

For they have been consumed in smoke—my days,
and my bones like a furnace have been scorched;
my heart has been crushed like grass and has withered. …
my bone clings to my flesh.
Psalm 102:3–5

And so he asks God for mercy, on the basis of the brevity of his life and the longevity of deity’s.

My days are like an extended shadow,
and I—like grass I wither.
But You, Yahweh, forever You dwell,
and Your memory from generation to generation.
Psalm 102:11–12

If God’s memory were to be passed on from generation to generation, well, his people need to survive. And so the psalmist is bold enough to tell God:

It is time to be gracious to her,
for the appointed season has come.
Psalm 102:13

It’s time. It’s the season. Get movin’ God, and relent, forgive, pardon me and withdraw your punishment!”

Apparently, he did!

For He has looked down from His holy height …
to hear the groaning of the prisoner,
to liberate the children of death.
Psalm 102:19–20

All’s well that ends well.

But then again, who wants a long life? Certainly not 190 years!

SOURCE: Lottie Kilraine on MSN