Life and Its Disappointments

In life we have seasons: summer, winter, autumn and spring. These come and go. The changing seasons show that nothing lasts for ever, but life will last for ever if we cast all our anxieties on Jesus and his Father who is our Creator.

The daffodils herald the coming of spring with sprightly looking flowers, yet later they decay back to earth. Sweet smelling roses look nice and good while in bloom, yet sometime later they also shed their beauty for the provision of manure to the soil of the earth. This has always been God’s plan for the earth. But He promises life to those that love His ways and follow His statutes. Human beings have their allotted time, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die: a time to plant and a time to uproot” (Ecc 3:1,2).

God says elsewhere in the Bible, “I bring to you life and death, but choose life”. Beyond death, there is life for those who toil in the Lord’s vineyard, for those that endure hardship and for those that run the race to the very end of their time. We have our allotted time: our own spring full of sun and shade, but we also reach the autumn of our lives and gradually begin to fade with ageing. Soon the end of our flirtation with this life draws near and, remember this, it goes for everyone, including you and me. So we should not waste life’s precious time worrying or being anxious or being afraid, for the living who believe in God and His word know they will die, but await their reward for a life lived in God’s way.

The Bible says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you” (James 4:8). Therefore we should seek the Lord while He can still be found. We should all, therefore, “Cast all our anxieties on him, because He cares for us” (1 Peter 5:7). Life, therefore, is a cycle. We are born, we die and then we live again depending on what we have done for God in this life, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt 16:24-28).

Finally, listen to the words of the Master himself as he speaks about life and death: “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live … Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done good will rise to life, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:25-29).

Bro Itai P Tembo (Sanyati, Zimbabwe)