Memories remind us that nothing lasts forever.
I read these words the other day, maybe I heard them in a
song, they affected me. The words are
true; I think a bittersweet truth.
Nothing lasts forever...all fades away...petals fall, summer ends,
leaves drop, friends change, they move on, marriages fail, lovers die, babies
grow up, children leave home. Nothing
lasts forever. At first glance it seems
that all is despair and sadness but each one of these things brought joy,
beauty, love and laughter, all was good at one point…good and beautiful
gifts. By His grace God enhances our
lives with bits of joy; gifts of love…some do last forever.
Sometimes…
God gives good gifts, but he doesn’t say they will last
forever. Some of us make the mistake of
thinking that once the ‘gift’ is gone, seemingly disappeared, out of our reach…possibly
into the reach of someone else or perhaps out of this world all together…like
petals blown into the wind gone forever…that this gift never was good. We think to ourselves and maybe even out loud
that maybe it was never intended as good, that it was our own imagining that
God could have given such a gift…like the one that ends in a failed marriage,
or when a child dies. The problem is not
that the gift is gone, but our response concerning it. A lost gift does not mean it was never good,
it was good. Just because a gift doesn’t
last forever doesn’t change the fact that it was good.
Toby Macs new song asks God the question Why do You give
and then take away?
Everything in this world is not ours to keep, we have it on
loan, whether it is flowers blooming, summer nights, fall days, friends sharing,
lovers loving, brides glowing, babies being born, children growing…pure good
and never nothing.
It’s true, our memories remind us that nothing lasts
forever, but they also remind us that those nothings were good…and I love that.
