Shade Tree Wisdom 6/30/09

End of the month and the first half year is already gone. How quickly time does fly. Indeed, the hymn has it right:

“Change and decay in all around I see,
But Thou who changest not, abide with me”

And how wonderful and strengthening it is to know that He does indeed abide with us. His promise is, “I will be with you even to the ends of the earth.”

The end of June really evoked a sort of pensive mood, and this morning during my little walk – it was really pleasant out early, a slight breeze, cool and refreshing – so that I could really appreciate St. Paul’s word from prison, “I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, but to remain is better for you.” And St. Peter in his second letter (1,12) chimes in with “I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body”.

Both statements express a longing for eternity, for being elsewhere, do they not? They remind us that our stay here is brief, and we have another home.

And yet . . . and yet, we still need to live here in the place where God Himself has placed us, doing daily what lies at hand to do, till that moment when He calls us home. Meanwhile, faithfulness and patience are the need for the day. Let us then be up and doing, with a heart for any fate, still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor, learn to wait.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day,
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away,
Change and decay in all around I see,
But Thou who changhest not, abide with me.” LSB 878,4.

Because “Tempus fugit” “Sic transit Gloria mundi”.

GPD 6/30/09