Here today, gone tomorrow

I have to be perfectly honest. This week’s photo challenge theme?

I had to look up the word to ensure the definition in my mind was correct. It’s just not a word I use in my daily life and I don’t even think I’ve ever used it in my writing.

Evanescent. Isn’t it an interesting word? A fancy way to say something is likely to vanish. Describe something fleeting. Transitory.

Much of this world can be categorized that way. We are surrounded by aspects which change so quickly and soon vanish. That green grass out there in my yard? In just a few months, the color will turn to brown and won’t reappear until spring comes again. Transitory.

The beautifully lush peony bushes surrounding my backyard deck and covered with bountiful buds? They will burst forth in a fanciful deep pink array, exude their lovely aroma, and then the petals will fall and they will be gone. Fleeting.

Short-lived. Just like that elusive fame that so many wish to attain. Why else would we hear that saying – he had his 15 minutes of fame – bantered about? Because fame can be so short-lived. Likely to vanish.

Evanescent.

Even our lives can be portrayed that way. We’re only on earth for a short time in the grand scope of existence. Some of us inhabit this earth for only a few years, some for a half century or longer, and some fortunate ones may live until they are 100.

But our one life here is evanescent. Vanishing. Fleeting. Transitory. Short-lived.

My Bible tells me: “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”  James 4:14 

And that verse reminds me once again of one of my favorite contemporary Christian songs by Casting Crowns.

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still you hear me when I’m calling
Lord, you catch me when I’m falling
And you’ve told me who I am
I am yours.

We humans are evanescent, but the God of the universe is not. We are here today, gone tomorrow. But the Creator of all is not. We are temporary. He is permanent.

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

That’s why I never cease to be amazed that God, the Lord of all creation, the great I AM, the Alpha and Omega (the Beginning and the End), the One who is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (all-present/all-seeing), and omnipotent (all-powerful), cares about evanescent me and you.

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt?
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart?

Not because of who I am
But because of what you’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who you are.

Minister Charles Stanley wrote in his book, Turning the Tide: Real Hope, Real Change:  “Hope founded upon a human being, a man-made philosophy or any institution is always misplaced. Why? Because these things are unreliable and fleeting. They do not last. Rather, to be genuine and enduring, our confidence and hope must be rooted in God and His eternal purposes. You see, the Lord desires for us to base our faith on what is sure, immovable, unchangeable, and unending. So our Savior, Jesus, gives us the one thing that can never be taken away – everlasting life. Imperishable. Undefiled. Unfading. This is true hope – the unshakable confidence and assurance Jesus offers us.”

As alluring as the fixations of this world are whether they be fame or fortune, recognition or ratings, admiration or accomplishments, I don’t want to place my hope in those evanescent things.

Instead, with each moment of time I have on this earth, I place my hope in the Everlasting One who knows my name and I appreciate each evanescent occurrence that He sends my way.

Excuse me while I step outside and breathe in the aroma of blooming peonies.

“Right now a moment of time is fleeting by! Capture its reality… become the moment.” ~ Paul Cerzanne

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