As we age, time seems to slip away as quickly as swiftly flowing water. Joys, opportunities, and dreams rush by. Youthful energy fades and we find ourselves vulnerable to weakness and disease. The brevity and fragile nature of our lives are impressed upon us as we see loved ones pass on and we face our own mortality.

Psalms 103:15-16 says, “Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone—as though we had never been here.” The writer probably had in mind the hot desert wind called hamsin that scorches the land in the Middle East, withering the spring vegetation. 1 And as for trials, sometimes we feel as if they will never end and evil seems often to run unchecked.

In contrast, God’s Word tells us of our eternal, unconquerable King of the ages, who is immortal, invisible, the only God (1 Timothy 1:17). His Word endures forever (1 Peter 1:24-25) and his love is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Ps. 103:17). Only he can offer eternal life (John 3:16, John 14:6) and true satisfaction to his human creation who bring death on themselves through their sin (Rom. 6:23). And only he can promise us eternal glory for faithfulness in the midst of trials and justice for the injustice that appears to prevail (2 Cor. 4:17, Rom. 8:18, Psalms 37:1-2).

Our great God holds our lives in his hands and one day, for those who have trusted in his Son as Savior, mortality will be swallowed up by immortality (1 Corinthians 15:54) as our fragile bodies become glorious, eternal bodies just like Jesus (Phil. 3:20-21).