December 15, 2021

“The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 18:2)

Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, reminds us that “time like an ever-rolling stream bears all our years away; they fly forgotten like a dream dies at the opening day.”

Have you noticed how longed for moments come, are experienced, then fade? Sometimes even in that moment you realize how transient it is? How quickly “forty winters shall besiege thy brow and dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field”?(Shakespeare’s Sonnet 2)

For the believer, there is comfort in the evanescence of life. After all, Watts also tells us that “under the shadow of Thy throne, thy saints shall dwell secure; sufficient is Thine arm alone, and our defense is sure.”

“O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Proper 12 – BCP p. 231)