Grass

Psalm 37:2

for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.

I’ve never had much luck with grass. It grows where I don’t want it, and it dies where it is supposed to grow. The thing about the grass though, is that just like all “green plants” it has a growing season. Unchecked it can grow like crazy. This verse refers to the “evil men” and “those who do wrong” in the previous verse. We like to think that evil has such an immediate effect, but just like the grass, before it withers, it grows. We gauge our life too often on how good things are, thinking that we must be in God’s will if everything is going well. And then when it crashes we start looking for the reasons that it all went wrong.

I mentioned my luck with grass. I can easily drop a handful of grass seed and water on a brown patch and see daily results of growth. Sometimes I get excited that I’ve finally succeeded. But just as quickly as it grows, the brown patch returns. This is comforting to think that while the wicked may prosper for a season that a day will come when it gets its due reward. But I also fear that there are places in my life where the green grass grows. Places that I mistake for goodness because of how it looks today. Places that will soon wither and die away.