What "Forever" Means Compared to "Here and Now"

In Isaiah 40, we read: "The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever" (verses 7-8; NASB).

Some time ago I wrote a piece called "Pruned" about the pruning of some bushes outside of our home office and the anticipation of the bushes' greater growth that their pruning produced. Now those pruned bushes are full of leaves, but the leaves look over-watered, limp, as if they experienced too much of a good thing. Since we did have a lot of rain recently, and not much sun, that could explain it.

Spring brings greener expectation, much as youth does. Spring brings graduations, weddings, baby showers, many expectations.

But the green doesn't last. Sun takes its turn to shine, to brighten, to mature things. Eventually, as Isaiah wrote, the grass withers and the flower fades.

As Christians, our hope is not in the seasons we experience, whichever one we are in, but in the promise of Isaiah 40:8: "The word of our God stands forever."

As Jesus Himself promised us: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Matthew 24:35; NASB).

We can enjoy the seasons God has gifted us with--"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Genesis 8:22; NASB)--and rest in the unchangingness of His Word, which remains forever.