Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, March 17, 2024
I saw this shop window sign in passing – in swiftly passing, so I wasn’t even sure I’d read it correctly but had no time to look back to check.
I was on a mission. We had to find my husband’s keys. We’d taken a day off, and it had been a lovely day, browsing through used books and other treasures in a small town on a sunny afternoon. First we’d explored together; then we’d meandered in different directions.
He phoned to tell me that his keys had slipped off what he thought was a secure clip, and he was in the process of retracing his steps through town. He urged me to keep on with my browsing; this was apparently an informational call only.
I told him there was no way I could continue my lighthearted strolling and would immediately find him, and then help him find those keys. We each prayed for success, and then I took off at a brisk clip down the street in his direction.
That’s when I hurried past the show window with its admonitory and encouraging message. A few minutes later my phone rang, and my husband reported success – he had found his keys!
We then found each other, and walked back up the street together. “I want to find a sign I saw a minute ago,” I told him. “I want to check to see if I read it correctly when I whipped by.”
Yes, I had:
have a little faith
THIS TOO SHALL PASS
It was good to read it leisurely now, while rejoicing that our key crisis had passed, and the lost was found. We thanked the Lord and resumed our explorations.
But the sign stayed with me, as words often do. I remembered how I’d heard the phrase, “This, too, shall pass,” as I was growing up, and adopted it for use when I was in the dentist’s chair. I dreaded these appointments because I’d been fitted with wire braces that hurt when they were twisted and tightened. I silently repeated to myself, “This, too, shall pass,” to help me bear the pain.
I know I have used this phrase often since those junior high school years, and, more recently, this variation: “It won’t always be like this.”
We seem to be in a season of memorial services, with a total of six this month and the next; a combination of in-person and online. This many services has prompted me to ponder how we talk about people who have died.
Perhaps to soften the stark word, “died,” we often speak of people as having passed, or passed away, or passed on, or even passed over. The latter two phrases hint at the speaker’s belief about death.
Much more important than my musing on the phrases we use is my longing for all passing away to pass away! I yearn for the Day when the Lord returns, and sin and sickness and cemeteries will be no more.
The Lord understands our longing, and meets us in our grief with these words from Revelation 21:4-5:
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”