We Are Grass

This morning I was walking with Marley our family dog and friend along a pathway that runs parallel to the west side of our property. Although I see them often, this morning my attention was drawn to the five antique pieces of farm machinery that sit just as the day they were abandoned in what was then the eastern border of a field that was part of a large potato farm. Our property has actually been severed from that farm and we inherited through the purchase these machines from another time.

They are marvels of mechanical genius. They consist of gears, levers, chain drives and steel wheels. I am not sure if they were designed to be drawn by a horse or by a tractor. There are absolutely no electric parts, hydraulic lines or instrumentation of any description. Each has the required steel seat for the rider to sit amongst what looks to be a very dangerous array of moving parts with not a safety guard or fender in sight. I have absolutely no idea what the function of each machine actually was. I can only speculate upon functions like cutting, baling, ploughing, planting, fertilizing, weeding and harvesting. Although I have often examined them to try to figure them out, this morning another motive drove my curiosity.

For the first time, it struck me that each of these machines was operated by a real man or woman. These machines represent actual lives lived on this very land. I imagined the kinds of lives, so different from ours, lived by these most certainly deceased neighbours. I even imagined what they might have looked like and how they had hopes and dreams and perhaps faith just the way we do. Did they love God? Were they followers of Jesus Christ? Will I meet them in heaven? They owned the same land and walked on the very path down which Marley and I walked. They are gone and we are here. It suddenly dawned on me that someday someone else will own this path and will walk down it wondering about us as well as the generation who left the mysterious farm machinery. We each get our turn to serve God. Our turn is usually rather short when compared to the time spent in eternity. The prophet Isaiah clearly makes this point in Isaiah 40: 6-8.

6 The voice said, "Cry out!" And he said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever."

We indeed are like grass. We are like the grass that grows up and around these farm machine marvels which served so well a now absent generation of flesh just like ours. We grow and perhaps prosper for a short season and then we wither and fade. We have a short while to make the best of this life and indeed to ensure our future in eternity. How do we ensure this future? The answer is within the words of Isaiah above. We cling to the word of our God that stands forever. We wither and fade. The Lord changes not. Our God gives us life on this earth and then takes it away, but not before He offers us life with Him everlasting. Because I am so very aware of my fading and withering, I am so glad I have accepted His kind offer.

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