Like Grass ...

Monday, Feb 11, 2019. Last summer was quite dry in Europe. We had three months of high temperatures and nearly no rain in the center of the continent. All meadows became yellow-ish. The grass withered, with a lot of consequences which you can still see today, after half a year.

The bible compares human life with grass and flowers. They look green now, but they might wither tomorrow. They look pretty for some days, but then they are gone. What is lasting? What is it that has a future? The fugacity of life is well known to all of us, though we might ignore it for most of our life.

Fugacity …

But the bible wants us to look into reality, to become aware of the true framework of our life. Let us look into the New Testament to learn more about this. For today, the original passage from 1 Peter reads as follows:

24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”3 And this is the word that was preached to you. (from 1 Peter 1)

Are we willing to accept the perishableness of life? Are we drawing the consequences of the fact that life ends, that all we do and plan is bound to be of limited lifetime? We can try to become very famous, to become unforgettable. We can try to gain fame and acknowledgement for human history. Some try this throught politics and power, others through science, others again through art and music.

Eternal …

Some of us still strive to shape their footprint on humanity. Others have given up. Some are just taking as much pleasure as they can during their lifetime, knowning it is all gone soon. Some are just furious about the injustice of existence. Where to find peace? How to live, when you die?

The apostle Peter talks about the word of the Lord, which endures forever. He talks about the risen Lord, Christ Jesus, who gives eternal life. It is a different appraoch to the key human problem. Some despise the very thought of eternal life. They cannot believe it, think that it is an illusion, driven by fear.

But the whole New Testament puts eternal life into the center of its reasoning. It talks about eternal life in and through faith. Only trusting the Lord, father, son and holy spirit, will give you access to it. Only accepting and receiving the word, which has been preached to you. You might oppose the mechanism. You might ask for other tools or pathways. But the approach which Jesus preaches is faith and faith only. Only trust can reconcile. Only faith can help.

It is the word that was preached to you. The word is not abstract. It has come. It is there, with you. It has been given to you, to me, to us. We can eat it, digest it, and live from it. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever! (Roland Potthast) ... further texts