I recall singing in my early childhood this nursery rhyme:
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.
Somehow, I can’t seem to remember the entire song, but what has always stood out to this day is that last line, Life is but a dream. Perhaps it’s the significance of our reality as human beings. The futility of life rings a familiar bell not only to me but should be to everyone who has ever been born.
The rest of the song hasn’t stuck in my mind yet that phrase about the temporariness of life, speaks volumes. How often do we stop in our tracks from our busy chores to focus on our walk as human beings and the stark possibility of being here today and gone tomorrow? Maybe not too many of us. Some may fear doing such reflections; we often have a propensity to want to avoid the subject of death or what happens when the breath of life goes. Understandably so, because we live as if we will never die and death is not for us. We fear the unknown.
The Holy Bible speaks a lot about life and its temporariness. It describes this life as vapour. “For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away,” James 4:14. It also compares life to grass. Isa. 40:6-8, “The voice said, ‘Cry out!’ And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘ All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”
Ecc. 1: 2-4, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.”
There is no doubt that life is fickle. This civilization is headed for destruction. However, all is not lost. There’s one whose death has brought about life. A different kind of life from what we know. It’s eternal life – live forever. Life without the limitations of time. A concept known as eternity which is very hard for us to grasp in our finite existence. The Bible puts it this way, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man. The things which God has prepared for those who love Him,” 1 Cor. 2:9.
Life, God’s life, through his Son Jesus, the Christ, has been sacrificed for us so we can escape this temporary life that leads to eternal death. “Jesus died so that we may live so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised,” 2 Corinthians 5:15.
“Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Phil 2: 6-8.
Romans 5: 9-10 spells the significance of Christ’s death even more profoundly. “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
As we prepare to partake of the New Testament Passover, drinking of His blood symbolized by wine, and eating of His broken body represented by bread, let us remember 1 Cor. 11:26, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he comes.” Life is certainly a dream, however, it can become a reality when we accept the shed blood of the Christ for the remission of our sins and we exalt Him above everything else, knowing in the fullness of time this temporary life will be transformed into a new life – life eternal. May your Passover be a blessed and inspiring one.
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