[364 words]
“Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land” (Song of Songs 2:12). I have always liked spring. The flowers of spring are beautiful and amazing in their detail and intricate design. Spring is a time of bright color and fragrance as plants rush to produce seeds for the future. Some of the most amazing flowers are so tiny they are hard to even see and often go overlooked by us mere humans. I admire the wonder of God’s creation even though they lead to problems with allergies and I am saddened by how quickly they wilt and die.
The Bible often uses flowers as an illustration for things that are quick to develop and just as quickly fade away. The life span of a human is often compared to that of a flower. “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” (Psalm 103:15-16). “Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble. They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure. Do you fix your eye on them? Will you bring them before you for judgment? Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one! A person’s days are determined; You have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed” (Job 14:1-5).
While our life may be short, God has made a way for us to spend eternity with Him by being born again through baptism in His son Jesus. “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, ‘All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever’” (1 Peter 1:23-25). This mortal body may fade, but God will provide us an everlasting one. God’s love and promises will endure forever.
Brad Tolbert
Monticello church of Christ
Monticello, AR