A WORD FOR TODAY, July 10, 2026
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you are blessed by this daily devotion.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, July 10, 2026
“As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more. But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children; to those who keep his covenant, to those who remember to obey his precepts. Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens. His kingdom rules over all.” Psalm 103:15-19, WEB
I do not have a green thumb. I do alright with the kinds of plants that don’t need too much attention, but most flowers I’ve ever tried to cultivate end up dying. One year I had a pot with some petunias that did not last very long. There were still a few branches with flowers, but a huge hole in the middle. So, I decided to fill the pot with other flowers that I thought would last longer. Unfortunately, the plan was not a good one because I did not find a good way to plant the new plants around the old. I would have been better off removing the petunias completely and beginning anew with the new flowers. In the end, everything was dead and the pot empty.
I lost the flowers because I didn’t do a very good job with planting, but the flowers would not have lasted forever. Flowers come and go with the wind. The blooms of our crepe myrtles are blowing all over the sidewalks. Wildflower fields are empty. Colorful gardens have turned green and the vibrant roadsides have turned to golden brown. Every kind of life comes and goes.
Life comes and goes, but life also goes on. I have learned to fill my flowerpots with green plants. I once had a snake plant that I couldn’t kill. We have a fern and some philodendron that seem to be holding their own. No matter how lovely those plants are today, they will eventually die because nothing living lasts forever.
We will die. This is a fact of the life since the beginning when Adam and Eve sinned against God. When they ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they broke their relationship with the One who created and loved them. Sending them out of the Garden of Eden was not cruel punishments, but a merciful response to their disobedience. See, if they stayed in the garden and continued to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life, they would live forever in fear of God their Father. Death is gracious under those circumstances.
We are comforted by the truth, however, that God had a plan even from the beginning. When the time was right, God sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to overcome death and the grave so that we might be restored in our relationship with our Father. Jesus defeated the sin that divided us from our Creator and made it possible to enter the Garden again where we will eat from the Tree of Life and live in His presence forever. For those who have faith, death is still a reality, but it is not permanent. For we who believe in Jesus, death is just a passing from one life to another. This life will end, but we will live forever.
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