Thursday, January 24, 2013

God Does It

Isaiah 45:5-17
In his poem entitled “Grass,” Carl Sandburg offers this view of human history and especially the futility of war:

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
                    I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
                    What place is this?
                    Where are we now?

                    I am the grass.
                    Let me work.

While Sandburg uses grass as a symbol of human frailty and a reminder of our transitory nature, the prophet Isaiah points to God, not as a symbol, but as the lone and enduring source of all there is. “…(T)here is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things” (Isaiah 45:6b-7).

We may rightly take pride in our accomplishments. We may point to what our hands have helped to shape and to form. We may marvel at bridges, at skyscrapers, at stadiums, at highways. We may congratulate those who achieve greatness, who take bold steps, who lead armies or workers or of soldiers, who write poetry or sing songs that touch the heart and soul, who run faster or climb higher than anyone else. We may pledge our allegiance to flags or countries or leaders. But the day will come, says Sandburg, when passersby will not even recognize our great battlefields, when nature will swallow us whole and cover over the scars we have left upon the earth. Perhaps then we will remember what Isaiah has already told us: our hope, our true hope, comes from the God who does all things and by whose hand life itself was formed. Perhaps when we recognize the fleeting nature of our own works we will be drawn to the firm and abiding truth of God’s eternal being. The grass may cover over our efforts, but it is God who created the grass. This is why we must turn our attention to God and follow in God’s ways. All else fades, but God alone endures. And this is our one hope.

Prayer: Gracious God, help us to trust in you and you alone. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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