The Grass Withers!

"Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8

When I turned 60 last week, it was not only a time to look forward excitedly to all the privileges I would receive with my Senior Citizen status, but also a time to look back at my life. I read all the happy birthday messages in Facebook, Messenger, and on my phone, email, and thanked God for all my loved ones, friends, and brothers and sisters in community. I blew out candles on cakes. No one put 60 candles on any of the cakes! Too many! Why do we blow out the candles? Is it to symbolize all the years that have passed, never to come back? Some say the smoke from the candles wafts our prayers up to heaven. 

I find that as I get older, the years seem to race by faster and faster. When I was young, it seemed as if waiting a whole week for the weekend was interminable! Now a whole year is almost over! No one, absolutely no one, can stop the march of time. No one can stop flowers from wilting, or grass from withering. No one can stop wrinkles and age spots from appearing on our skin, not even the most expert skin specialist or plastic surgeon! We are all inexorably moving on. What can we hold on to? What can stand in the midst of the shifting and shaking around us? Political turmoil!  Health crisis! Family upheavals! Financial downturns! 

Only the Word of God. May I always turn to You O Lord, read Your Word, and learn at Your feet. Like Simon Peter, I proclaim, Lord, to whom should we go? You hold the Words to eternal life!