A voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”

Isaiah 40:6-8 (CSB)

I love the contrast here between our fragile humanity and God’s immovability.  Our best attempts at goodness and faithfulness and loyalty and love, all that the Hebrew word hesed (חסד) communicates, just can’t last.  They are doomed to decay.  But not God’s.  He keeps His word forever.  Another translation says “endures” forever.  The verb used here though isn’t static.  It’s not just stability and endurance that Isaiah is highlighting.  The Hebrew verb is קום (koum) and it means to arise, to stand up.  It’s the word that Jesus spoke to revive Jairus’ darling daughter when He said, “Child, get up.”  I imagine it like steam rising, like incense filling a room.  God’s life and light and love grows and expands, like a pinch of yeast working its way through a mountain of dough.  I want to tap into this action, to plant myself in His kingdom and live my life rooted in the soil of His living, expanding word.  Because on my own I will only wither like windswept grass and fall like a frostbitten blossom.