dry grass & wilted flowers

“All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

1 Peter 1:24-25

God’s Word, as we reflect on what it is, brings much needed perspective. Peter knew that the believers to whom he wrote, enduring under persecution by what seemed an overwhelming power in Rome’s realm, needed to see the big picture. And so he quotes the Word of God (Isaiah 40:6-8) to remind them to cling to the enduring truth and power of God in His Word. They might suffer under Roman persecution just as the exiled Jews suffered in Babylon as Isaiah prophesied. But both those empires of men were simply fields of kingdom grass destined to wither and wilt. God’s Word… in particular the gospel… will always outlast every human effort offered against it.

Also, what was true of empires that are now just tattered ruins will also be true of each of our lives. We grow for a short green season. But we are all bound to fade, grow brittle, and wither with age just like the grass of the field. Our achievements flower briefly and then droop and die. Yet God’s Word always remains. He is forever faithful, strong, enduring, and stable. And His good news can carry us beyond the dried meadow of human temporary wilted flowers into the endless full bloom of worship, grace, life, and the glory of the Lord for eternity!

We are grass. All human achievement is a wildflower that fades in a brief eruption of outward display. Only God’s Word lasts forever. Only the saving gospel of Jesus Christ will have eternal impact and a true glory that never fades and lasts. This world is destined for dry, parched ground. May the good news instead keep my soul thriving to live today in the light of eternity that never loses its glory!