All flesh is like grass

For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God. For “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the LORD abides forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you. Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. - 1 Peter 1:23-2:3

Three different people gave me bouquets of flowers for my birthday. I loved them. All were some arrangement of purple and yellow, which happen to be two of my favorite colors.*

Being an overly-practical person, I used to think the giving and receiving of floral bouquets was kind of a waste of money. To some extent, I still think this, but that’s not really what I want to write about. Suffice to say that I’m not as opposed to giving flowers to people as I once was. Yet there still remains some level of silliness to the whole thing because no matter how beautiful the flowers are, they always wilt and die (rather quickly, if under my supervision). When this happens I always feel a twinge of sadness and it’s easy to forget how much joy their gleaming beauty brought me when I first got them.

Well, as I listened to a pastor preach over this passage of 1 Peter yesterday one thing that kept popping into my head was my dying flowers that had so sweetly been given to me for my birthday. They are now about two weeks old (in vase years) and very much in the process of losing their former glory.

It struck me that, even in their rapidly decaying state, there is still beauty to be found. They can serve as a visual reminder of how precious a truth it is that the word of the Lord, the very word which was both written for and preached to us so that we will grow in respect to salvation, is living and imperishable. They can remind me, just as Peter does, to think of the Lord’s kindness towards me and to long for the pure milk of his abiding word, which both spoke my life into existence and declares to me my freedom from sin. What could be more beautiful?

*Any affection for said colors is enhanced by, but not limited to, their affiliation with my favorite basketball team. Go Lakers!