Truth or Fiction

All flesh is grass, and all its grace as the flower of the field.   Isaiah 40:6

Grass – “The difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to make sense.”  So said the ex-Communist colonel in the recent film, The International.  This is great script writing.  We do expect our novels to make sense.  There has to be resolution.  Of course, life isn’t fiction.

In life, it’s all grass.  The Hebrew idiom simply underscores our self-assured preoccupation with significance.  It’s the rage these days.  Once we have achieved success (let’s see, how do we measure that now?), then we are told to move on to significance.  That usually means going out with a finale, not a whimpering gasp.  But life isn’t fiction, and many, many times what we thought we were doing just turns out to be wrong.  The biblical view is a bit more confrontational.  You really won’t know the significance of your life until after you’re dead.  Why?  Because only God knows how it all fits together.  From this side of the grave, it’s all grass.  It comes and goes, and a thousand years from now, no one will even know you existed.  So much for significance!

But wait!  There’s more (as the advertisement says).  We might not see anything but the flowering and fading grass, but God does.  He sees just how each one of His children fit into His majestic plans.  He sees the eternal significance of every choice we make.  Just because our eyes are unable to look above the level of the dirt doesn’t mean that He can’t see the heavenly horizon.  We do have significance.  We just don’t usually have any idea what it really is.  And that’s why, when it’s all said and done, we have to trust that He knows how it all goes together.  We have to learn to simply be obedient and stop insisting that it all makes sense.  After all, we are not characters in a novel.

Grass (khatsir) has two important characteristics in the biblical world.  The first is food for animals.  Why is this so important?  Because it is God who provides the hay, the grass and the reeds that sustain animals – and ultimately sustain us.  He is the creator of the seed.  He brings the rain.  He provides the soil.  Grass is His goodness in green carpet display.   Next time you mow the lawn, you can think about your close encounter with common grace.

The second important characteristic is the fragility of the grass.  Here today – gone tomorrow.  As a metaphor for life, it is a constant reminder of our existential contingency.  Just look at the grass and let it speak.  “You are not gods.  You only walk on God’s carpet.  Be careful how you tread.”

Life isn’t fiction.  It’s OK that it doesn’t always make sense.  But that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what to do next.  Obedience comes before understanding, right?

Topical Index:  grass, fiction, obedience, significance, Isaiah 40:6, khatsir