Beside the eternity of God’s life, our years are “as nothing,” like steam from a boiling pot. Compared with the total years of earth’s history, how long is your one life? The prophet Isaiah draws this picture of the flesh:
A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass (Isaiah 40:6-7).
See the flower in full bloom: how delicate are its petals! How bright its colors! Yet the flower quickly fades and withers away. See the young woman: she is like a flower, so fresh and so attractive. Yet that kind of beauty never lasts. All too soon, she is wrinkled and worn, like her aged mother. See the young man: How strong and handsome! He hopes to escape the way his father looks. He tries to be more healthy and fit. Yet his youth passes. Before long, he too looks old. He too grows frail. Then he dies. He is buried in the same soil as all his forefathers.
No flesh, no matter how young or healthy, is strong enough to escape the cycle of aging and death. As much as we love and respect parents, we must realize that “flesh gives birth to flesh.” From our fleshly parents we receive fleshly life, which lasts a few short years, and then is lost.