The similarity between the Man and the Flower of the field!

An easily accepted truth between Christians and non-Christians is the brevity of human life, but so similarly easy to be forgotten and ignored. All claim to know that everything passes quickly and there is no explicit denial of mortality. However, many of those who eloquently say such words live as if not only them, but also all things around them are eternal. And there are still those who, by admitting the efemerity of the matter, use it as a pretext to enjoy everything libertinely, to live the here and now looking only for their pleasures and not looking or importing with what is beyond their views.

But the one who is of the Lord must constantly beware of the danger of such ramblings and be reminded daily of what is written in the Scriptures. Human existence is described as smoke (Ps 102: 3) and shadow (Ps 102: 11). In James 4:14 we are asked: "What is your life?"; and there are even answers, "you are just so foggy that you show up for a little while and then it fades."

In the same way, in Psalm 103: 15-16 he tells us about it, "like a man, his days are like grass, like the flower of the field, so it blooms, for, blowing in the wind, it disappears, and not from then on, he will know his place. "

This truth, that we are like flowers that are born and wither, that we flee like the shadow and do not remain (Job 14: 2) and that everything in this brief life evaporates, does not suggest that we should stop working, studying, starting a family, it holds us back from having properties or from exercising any activity. Not in any way! But neither should we live for such things.

It is useless to admit with the lips that everything happens, but, on several occasions, to be so foolish as to be dazzled with riches, fleeting beauty and with the world, to try to make those perpetual things by attaching ourselves to them, like to them someone who futilely tries to hold a pile of sand with their own hands, which is revealed by their fingers and is dissipated to the simple wind.

Nevertheless, let us follow the wise counsel of Calvin:

"With any kind of tribulation, however, that we are pressured, we must always bear in mind this end: that we become accustomed to the contempt of the present life and from there we are awakened to the meditation of the future life. that God knows very well how inordinately we are by nature inclined to a love animalized by this world, he applies the most appropriate reason to retract us and shake our torpor, so that we do not cling too tenaciously to that love (...)
Therefore, we flow properly from the discipline of the cross when we learn that this life, when it is esteemed in itself, is restless, turbulent, of innumerable miserable ways, in absolutely no happy aspect; that all things that are counted by blessings are uncertain, inconstant, futile and vitiated by many and mixed evils; and from this, at the same time, we conclude that here nothing should be sought or hoped for but fought; that our eyes should look towards the sky, when we think of the crown it is reserved. "
(The Institutes, Book III, Chapter IX)

Such contempt for present life does not mean ingratitude, much less dissatisfaction. But it reveals that the regenerated must not especially attach themselves to this life, remembering that nothing is worth and being filled with contempt for the world, so that, as Calvin himself affirms elsewhere, he applies himself with all his heart to the meditation on the future life , that is blessed and eternal.

And that is precisely what the Bible warns us, in the effort to seek and think of things from above, where Christ lives, seated at the right hand of God. (Cl 3: 1-2)

The wise Christian should enjoy all the blessings that the Lord grants him, but in a manner prescribed in the Word of God. May we be wise Christians, who attach themselves to the Lord because they know that He is eternal, immutable and perfect. And so, we live wisely, using the present life only for the glory of God, always having in our minds that we are strangers and never forgetting to meditate with delight in the future life that has been reserved for us. Yes, my dear brothers, that is, in fact, to take advantage of life!

Source

The Christian who reflects on the brevity of life is obliged to recognize his smallness and fragility before the Creator (Psalm 39: 4), just as he is exhorted to take away his hope of what is ephemeral and deposit it in him who is eternal, long lasting; In the one that remains forever! And finally, he says the words of the psalmist: "In fact, man passes like a shadow, in vain he worries, he hoards treasures and does not know who will take them, and I, Lord, what do I expect? You are my hope. "(Ps 39: 6-7)