The Grass Withers

“The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever.” 

                                                                     - Isaiah 40:8

For those of you who know me, you knew that it was only a matter of time before I mentioned this verse in one of my devotions. I really love this verse. I say it every Sunday, after I have read the scripture before the sermon.

I really love this verse. There are nicely-framed pictures on my office wall with these words written on them. My children made crafts with this verse on them, and gave them to me for Fathers Day. Every once in a while a potted plant dies in my office, and I jokingly let it stay there as an illustration of this verse (mainly, it's because I'm too lazy to throw it out).

In January, Carol and I went to Albuquerque visit our oldest son, Stuart, and his fiance, Kate. Albuquerque is in a high desert area of New Mexico. One morning we were out on a walk, and the whole hillside was full of dead grass and bushes. I immediately thought, “Wow, I could use this hillside for, like, a million Sundays!” Actually, there is a rugged beauty in the brown and gray of winter. But it certainly helps Isaiah's words ring true: The grass withers, and the flower fades...

A little background on this verse might be helpful. Just prior to Isaiah 40:8, the prophet introduces the notion of withering flowers and fading grass as a declaration that nothing lasts forever, that things in life are transient. But the real humbling point the prophet is trying to make is that the grass and the flower are merely metaphors for human beings:

“All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass.”

I think that perhaps Isaiah is trying to make us ask the question, “On whom, or what, do I place my hope?” If our answer is anything other than the true and trustworthy promises of God, then we have placed our hope on someone or something that will go the way of grass and flowers. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, and the flower fades...

...but the word of our God shall stand forever.

I trust God. My hope is in what God has in store for us. And so God's word means something to me—God's word is a promise I can embrace, God's word is instruction that leads me in the way of life, God's word is my mandate to love unconditionally.

The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever.

Where do you find your hope?