"D" is for ...

"D" is for DRIED UP.

The life of mortals is like grass,
    they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
    and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
    the Lord’s love is with those who fear him ... (Psalm 103:15-17)

One of my co-workers planted zinnias on the company property earlier this year. They're a little off the beaten path, and I didn't even know about them until I stumbled upon them by accident a few weeks ago. Since then, I've visited them nearly every day, marveling at all of the different species of butterflies that would flit around them and land on their petals.

Earlier this week, Augusta had rare below-freezing weather a few nights in a row. So when I went to visit the zinnias, I found dried, dead flower-corpses. They were ugly, but I found them beautiful in their ugliness, so of course I had to take a few pictures.

One thing I love about the wisdom literature of the Bible is that it's constantly reminding us of how short and uncertain this mortal life is. Our lives can be snuffed out at any moment: a sudden illness, an accident, or even lethal violence can happen as quickly and unexpectedly as a hard freeze in the Deep South. But while our earthly days are numbered, but God is eternal, his love reaching "from everlasting to everlasting."

Knowing that eternality exists, and knowing that the eternal God is a God of love, and knowing that we have been made eternally alive with Christ, I can look on these dead flowers, or ponder my own mortal life, with the knowledge that there is much more to life than this earthly life. That doesn't make loss easier, necessarily; it just helps me keep things in perspective.