This month, the flowers in my beds fade in anticipation of the fall. A few plant varieties create late blooms, like chrysanthemums and monk’s hood (also called wolf’s bane, whose purplish flower resembles a monk’s cowl). Still, I watch the season closing around me.

Flowers drop, vines die back, freezes descend. Nothing lasts forever.

Or I should say, only a few things live on and on and on.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.

It’s worth dwelling on this line from the prophet Isaiah. The word of our God endures forever. The time we spend reading or listening to the scriptures intertwines us with eternity. We touch truths with no end, that carry through, that never die.

I scroll through lots of ideas and entertainment that are fascinating today and forgotten tomorrow. I try not to think about so much time wasted. But the few minutes of my day interacting with the scriptures point me to to the everlasting ways of the Lord.

May the flowers falling this season remind us of truth that endures forever, and rests patiently at our fingertips.

Isaiah 40 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo of Monk’s Hood—Wikipedia