Life is short
This year seems to have sped by faster than usual. Wasn’t I just walking through the woods looking at the spring wildflowers? It also seems like no time at all since my children were babies and now, they’re grown. My dad and my sister have been gone for many years and all of my friends have grey hair and wrinkles – not me though, well maybe a few.
Life is short and it goes fast – we just have to accept it. Our lives are like spring wildflowers or grass, as it says in Psalm 103:15-16 (GW): “Human life is as short-lived as grass. It blossoms like a flower in the field. When the wind blows over the flower, it disappears, and there is no longer any sign of it.” In a way, God created us with built-in obsolescence – we have an expiration date and there’s nothing we can do about it. But there is good news in all of this.
Author Marshall Segal, in an article titled Uncomfortably Limited, The Frustrating Beauty of Finitude, said, “From the beginning, humans are finite to maximize, not minimize, what humans are made to be and do. To be fully human requires feeling and embracing the limits of being human.” He says God uses our finitude to draw us to himself, to his infinitude.
In Psalm 103:17-19, we read the rest of the story: “But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord‘s mercy is on those who fear him. His righteousness belongs to their children and grandchildren, to those who are faithful to his promise, to those who remember to follow his guiding principles. The Lord has set his throne in heaven. His kingdom rules everything.”
Our infinite God understands our limits because as Jesus, he lived within the same ones. He can relate to us and shows us compassion and love as we grapple with our short, sometimes frustrating lives. “So, if you feel a little like grass, let those sharp green blades point you up and away from your frustrations and insecurities to the God who knows your finitude, planned your finitude, lived your finitude, and now redeems your finitude.”
This life is short, but let’s encourage ourselves by remembering life with God will be forever. We can also enjoy the beauty of the grass and wildflowers as reflections of his glory.
Study by Tammy Tkach
First published on 11 October 2023, at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com
About the writer:
Tammy Tkach is the Assistant Pastor of the Eugene, Oregon, USA, Grace Communion International congregation. She is a speaker and writer, and publishes a blog at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com
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