Life's realities: cut flowers

It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.

 Ecclesiastes 7:2

I attended my first "send off" for a friend at a fairly tender age of 14.

Subsequently, there were others who passed on -- relatives and friends. It's a constant reminder that we are transient on this earth and that every new day is a gift of life.

Phillip Jensen, a clergyman from Sydney Australia, describes our lives as "cut flowers".

A flower may look beautiful and vital when it is cut but its petals will eventually shrivel and fall off, and the once sweet perfume which emanates from it becomes odiously rank in death. 

Then there is the futility of our pursuits – I’m not trying to be nihilistic or fatalistic here but the painful truth is clear as day; our achievements and pursuits will all fade away when we pass on. 

I remember my great-granddad because he lived to almost a century. But my children will have no memory of him because he passed on before they were born. They will not be able to recollect, like I would, the tin of tobacco which he used to carry with him, the clay pipe he smoked with, or the money (usually a dollar) he would thrust into my hand whenever he saw me.

In the same way, if God permits that I live long enough to see my grandkids but not the generation after, those who come along later will not know me. I will not be remembered for very much longer, much less my achievements of where I was in the pecking order of life or the accumulation of possessions, and that is reality. 

The things which many of us pursue with such passion and energy – money, fame and pleasure – are ironically most worthless in our death because they can do nothing for us. And we will have to stand before our Maker to give account of the life we lived.

The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

1 John 2:17

And as we look around us in the world today, we see and experience many things which are discomfiting: sickness, disease, injustice, violence, terrorism and so on. It is a fallen world which is passing away according to scripture.

But we also see signs of renewal, goodness and hope: in new births, kindness and fidelity. These are signs that God is still involved in the world today, still caring for it, shaping it, and bringing and guiding history in accordance to His will. 

It’s amazing that God intervened in human history more than 2000 years ago by sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins, to reconcile us to God: our lives need not be like those of cut flowers but a beautiful beginning in eternity with God. 

If you would like to know more about the good news of the sacrificial death of Christ and His offer of salvation, please follow this link.

God’s peace be unto you.

Copyright 2018 Soundsong Records & Media LLP