as i travel thru ThisPilgrimLand

Fading Flowers

The video below is one of a dandelion.  Shot over a month long period of time, the video shows the life of a dandelion flower from full bloom to seed head.  The dandelion seed head is of course the lovely white flowers that as children all of us enjoyed so much as children.  I must admit, I never realized that the seed head came from the dead dandelion.  Watch the video to see what I mean.

 

Isaiah chapter 40, verses 6-8 reads as follows:

“A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, ”What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.”

Here, in extolling the Lord’s people that God’s word will stand forever, Isaiah uses the flower to illustrate man’s standing before God.  Isaiah shows the reader a lush green field that is sprinkled with wild flowers.  Isaiah reveals to the reader that the green grass is the human flesh and the flowers that all of us like to gaze upon when spring time comes are the beauty that we see.

Isaiah is quick to point out though that, just like in the video, the grass and the flower all fade away and lose their luster.  What was once shiny and pleasing to the eye becomes withered and frail until it blows away in the wind.  What is that wind?  According to Isaiah, it is nothing less than the breath of God.

Surely we serve a sovereign God who rules over all things.  Amazingly though, God’s might and majesty can be shown through an illustration as simple as the dandelion.  Is this not a God who wants His people to know Him to the fullest?  This must be why hides His splendor and our dependence on Him in such things as the field and the flower.

According to God’s will and time, all of us will fade away.  Our time lapse may be longer than the month of the dandelion but surely one day our time will lapse.  We must recognize our place in the eyes of God today and remember how feeble and helpless we stand before Him.  This is why He had to save us through His Son.  We are fleeting.

Isaiah reveals that only one thing stands forever.  That is the word of God.  As we live in a time where the authority and eternal goodness of God’s word is under attack from inside and outside the church, we must remember the flower.  It is dying and will one day be gone.  We are dying and will one day be gone.  Only God’s word will stand throughout all time.

Peter explains in 1 Peter 1 what this word is as he quotes Isaiah’s words from above.  What is this word that will always stand?  Peter states, that “this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25b).  The gospel is the word that will always last.  Why would we teach about a dying flower when we can speak of something eternal? Why would we speak of new dreams and visions when we can share what Christ’s disciples shared in? Why are you not teaching the gospel today?