Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Every year when I turn the calendar page to this month, I think of the last lines of a poem that’s a friend of mine, and grin. The poem is simply entitled, “February.”1 In eight brief lines N. M. Bodecker describes the cold, dark days of the shortest month of the year. He concludes:
how nice to know
that February
is something purely
temporary.
When I was scrolling through my February 2025 photos I was surprised to find several snow shots of our front yard and neighborhood – how quickly I forgot! So far, this year has been much milder for us in western Washington, but we know that much of the country has struggled and suffered with snow and ice and frigid cold. These folk might gain a bit of encouragement to remember that, despite appearances, February “is something purely temporary.”
I suddenly thought back to my junior high days when I had to pay painful visits to our family dentist to have my braces tightened. I dreaded those visits, and remember sitting in the chair, mouth open and nerves on edge, muttering to myself, “This, too, shall pass.” I don’t recall where I first heard that sentence, but it seemed custom-designed to get me through my dental visits.
After over three years of this teeth torture, my braces were removed, and as time rolled along we discovered, much to my parents’ and my own distress, that the teeth-straightening results of all those months turned out to be . . . purely temporary. My teeth reverted to their misalignment.
Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines “temporary” as “lasting for a limited time.” That can be a good or bad thing. Good if it describes something bad, and bad if it describes something good!
One thing I know for sure: I don’t want my life to be temporary, lasting for a limited time. I see myself as living forever. I think I have God to thank for that:
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts . . . ” (Ecclesiastes 3:11a NKJV)
I know it’s in my heart; I want to live forever! No wonder John 3:16 is the best-known and perhaps best-loved verse in the Bible, with its promise that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Everlasting life . . . eternity.
Have you heard the story of Arthur Stace? You would not have predicted his future if you had known his childhood. He grew up in very rough circumstances—his parents and sisters were alcoholics and involved in unsavory and criminal activities. He followed down those same paths, and by age 12 became a ward of the state, having had no formal schooling. He was jailed for the first time at age 15. He enlisted in World War I at the age of 26, and returned home partially blind in one eye.
He became a Christian in 1930, when he attended a preaching service in order to get the tea and food offered after. His life turned around completely after that, and he would preach on street corners for over 20 years.
But two years after his conversion he heard an evangelist speak passionately about eternity, saying: “Eternity, Eternity, I wish I could sound or shout Eternity through the streets of Sydney . . .”
That word kept ringing through Arthur Stace’s head after he left the meeting, and he said he felt a powerful call from the Lord to write Eternity.
Even though he could scarcely write his own name legibly, when he wrote the word Eternity in chalk on the sidewalk, it came out smoothly, in a beautiful copperplate script.
He wrote that word several mornings a week for the next 35 years, leaving home early in the morning to do it, since he wanted to avoid notice — which he did for 24 of those years. Even after he was finally discovered he continued his one-word ministry, still getting up early to write that word all over Sydney, wanting people to contemplate their future when they saw it, and turn to the Lord.
For more on Arthur Stace’s amazing ministry and legacy, and to see a photo of his handwritten Eternity, search for Mr. Eternity in your browser and marvel at how he faithfully answered the call he sensed from His Lord.
As we step out into this brand-new week, I invite you to read these verses every morning with me, and perhaps learn them by heart:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV)
1 February by N. M. Bodecker – Your Daily Poem