A Flower Quickly Fading
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
How many know the song by Casting Crowns, called “Who Am I”?
…I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind
Still, You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours; I am Yours…
This song is so beautiful. When we remember this life is just like a wave tossed in the ocean, it can help us to see how small our problems and the trials of life are. They are not the end all, be all that they seem to be. It helps us to be eternity minded and remember what is most important… loving Jesus, loving others, obeying Him, worshiping Him and expanding His kingdom!
Remember this life truly is just a vapor in the wind! Our time on earth is just a flicker before we step into eternity. The moment we take our last breath our souls leave our bodies and travel somewhere! They will live on forever in one place or the other, with God or without Him – we are immortal beings! Our body is just a temporary shell for the spirit and soul, the eternal part of us, the part of us made in the image of our Creator!
God breathed life into Adam, the first man, and put him in the Garden of Eden. He put him in paradise! He then gave him a wife. Everything Adam and Eve needed was provided. They were put in charge of this beautiful, harmonious, wonderful place. They enjoyed leisurely working in this garden I imagine. After all, it is good for man to work, produce and create, just like our Father! God was close to Adam and Eve. He walked and talked with them in the cool of the day! Eden had no sin, it was full of light and the goodness of God until one day Eve took the bait of the adversary, the snake, the liar and the thief!
Suddenly they were naked, afraid, fearful and ashamed. These were foreign emotions up until this point! God had to remove them from this glorious place. He even had to put cherubim in the garden with a sword of fire that ‘turned every way’... to guard the tree of life. Fascinating isn’t it! God was shielding them from eating of the tree of life in their fallen state!
If they had eaten of the tree after the fall, they would have continued to live forever, only now in a state of separation from God. They had to be expelled from the living waters, from their daily bread, from the tree of life. They had to live in the fallen world, the temporary world, and experience physical death… which is where we find ourselves!
God was ultimately protecting them even though they had disobeyed Him, even though they had fallen for the lie! He had already devised a plan long before this, to reconcile them and mankind, back to Himself, to make them spiritually alive again. Oh how God is faithful even when we are not!
We know the rest of the story. Man would have to work really hard now to till the land, and woman would have to suffer pain in childbirth. Now there was a necessary divide between the Holy One and man. Man would have to deal with the effects of sin and evil entering the world… man would have to live outside of paradise.
Like apostle Paul, man will at times live with a thorn in his side, but to the glory of God, when we are weak, then we are strong! The thorn keeps us humble, brings us to our knees, and allows God to rise in us and be our strength, courage, healing or whatever it is we need as we depend on Him and allow Him to work!
Because of the fall, all the way back to Adam, man is corrupted by sin and dies physically. Apart from being born again, made alive by faith-belief-trust in Jesus, man remains spiritually dead. God hasn’t deserted us in that horrid condition, He made a way. Jesus is the way back to Eden! The veil is torn! Hallelujah!
Do you know who you are? Are you His? Then whom or what shall you fear? Death has lost its sting! Almighty God, the one whom all glory, honor, power and dominion belong, has you in the palm of His hands. He wants to walk and talk with you! You are sealed, marked, and born again in Christ! Be still and know, God performs His Word. Know that He hears you when you are calling…
