We think of the earth as something solid, firm, lasting forever. Some believe it has been here for billions of years and will remain for billions more. In truth, the earth is passing away as we speak, and it is no more firm than above bubbles children at a festival were trying to burst.
The fragility of life is seen in the gossamer web spoken of in Jonathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon:
"Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock."
The fragility of our lives, of our deeds, of the very earth is no more solid than the walls of Jericho which fell without warning, (Joshua 6:20) and the Tower of Siloam,which fell without warning. (Luke 13:4). So it will be for the Great Wall of China, which seems so strong and sturdy,
CC photo, use w/attribution, Fabien Dany - www.fabiendany.com
Even now, it is crumbling
CC photo, by Bill Price III
The earth is fragile, cracked and quaking even as we speak-
US Geological Survey
"The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it,and it falls, and will not rise again."(Isaiah 24:20)Our lives, our deeds, the very earth is fragile. The breath we draw is fleeting. No more substantial than the silk of a gossamer web, no more sturdy than a butterfly wing, no more lasting than a bubble ascending to some height, only to vanish in its evanescence and be no more.
Jesus lasts forever. He is the eternal, the substantial, the durably secure shelter in which we cling.
"The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he." (Deuteronomy 32:4)
Hide thy fragile self in Him, the Rock of Ages!
