"As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more."
Psalm 103: 15, 16
I went to a funeral this week, held for a man one year younger than me who died of ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease. As I perused the pictures that chronicled his life, I saw the years of flourish: all the school pictures, beginning with first grade, his first car, his wedding day, the arrival of children, the passage of time. Then, the winds of mortality began to blow as somewhere on the timeline, he discovered he had a disease. Suffering faded the flower as he gradually declined. How sad.
But listen to these next two verses: "But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children - with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts." Psalm 103: 17, 18
At first, all seems hopeless - "and its place remembers it no more" - like driving past an old cemetery, windswept and forgotten. Will our lives be lived in vain? The Bible goes on to tell us that if I respect the Lord, remember his promises and obey Him, then his love remains with me from "everlasting to everlasting!" No end in sight. God will remember me.
As Jesus said to Martha, he also tells me: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die...
Do you believe this?" (John 11: 25 & 26)
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