by Rev Donald Schatz

Others Renew.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:8, New International Version

This year I am not ready for summer to end.  I feel like I lived through summer, but we didn’t really have one.  No vacation.  No short day trips.  No hiking.

For years Fall has been my favorite season of the year, but this year I would love to hang on to summer.  The flowers fade and fall.  Long summer sunshine gives way to the shorter rays of autumn.

God’s ancient people were frightened.  Dark days were upon them.  At first one wonders about Isaiah’s pastoral sensibilities.  “The grass withers and the flowers fall….”  Well there’s a comforting thought to someone captured by fear, but Isaiah wasn’t done, was he?

“But the word of our God stands forever.”  That word Isaiah had delivered seven verses earlier:  “Comfort, Comfort my people says your God.”  God’s Word of Comfort, his Word enfleshed in Jesus, stands forever.

These words are true.  This promise is bank, regardless of the season—whether of the year or of life.  God attaches his Word in Jesus to our living, to our life’s experiences, and even to our dying.  When we get to any experience, to any season, and, yes, when we get to our own dying, Christ is already there.  He’s waiting in every moment, in every movement of life, in every tear, in the ringing joy of our laughter, in every flower, and in every flower’s fading.

Christ is there, so that we may always remember, even if it takes us a bit longer than we might like, that the word of God’s promise stands forever.  He is standing right beside you today.  He is there in your sisters and brothers of faith.  He is there in the gift of the church.  He is there, as faith’s author and object.  He stands with you today, tomorrow, and ever after.  Fall will turn to Winter, Winter to Spring, and the flowers will bloom again in renewal.  I promise.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO