The Story Behind the Fading Pictures

There are boxes filled with pictures all over my Living Room floor. As I look through these pictures I am aware that most of the people I'm looking at are no longer alive yet when the pictures was taken they were young and vivacious. I think that's why I woke up this morning thinking about these verses; "A voice says,'Cry!' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' All flesh is grass, and all 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." Isaiah 40:6-8

I have counted at least seven places in the Scriptures where it talks about a man's life being like a fleeting shadow or a mere phantom as he goes to and fro and yet in these same passages I often find God offering comfort. The comfort is found in the contrast between who we are and who God is. In the same chapter of the Bible that I quoted above I find this description of God; "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; and His understanding is unsearchable."

There is another picture that has always filled me with wonder. This same everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth whose understanding is unsearchable is spoken of in Ephesians. In Ephesians I see a picture of something that took place before the foundation of the world. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." (Ephesians 1:3-6)

These pictures of people whom I have loved remind me of how fleeting life is. Their life here on earth is now a memory, very much like the flowers that were blooming in my yard yesterday before the frost came last night. However, the word of God that remains forever shows me a much bigger picture. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) When Ma Belle was alive she told me that the only thing she wanted said at her funeral was the message of eternal life. And so these pictures that fill my Living Room remind me not only of the brevity of life but also of the eternal life promised in God's word to those who believe.

Father, I have been reminded so much lately that I my life here on earth is temporary and yet I am filled with hope when I read in Your Word about the love You have lavished on me. I grieve for those I can now only see in photographs but I don't grieve like those who have no hope because I believe in the eternal life given through faith in Your Son.