When I look down casually, sometime the grass has turned green. After suffering the trial of wind, frost, blizzard and sleet, the grass speared out of the earth jostling for position. Under the gentler breathings, the delicate little life forms, nodding their heads, say hello to all things, exhibit their various postures to the world and serve their respective function to express God’s glory. A line of a poem “The grass cannot be burned out even by a prairie fire but grows again with the spring breeze.” is the true picture of their lives’ journey. They bud, blossom and bear fruit, over and over, which demonstrates their determination that they will forever show forth their life force bestowed upon them by the Creator. Moreover, they will strictly stand by their respective life courses, perform their duties among all things and play their roles well.
The grass never cavils at the anonymity brought by fate, but instead uses its tenacious life force to interpret its whole life. It dances with the wind and becomes still when the wind lulls, not scrambling for the luxury of this world. Commonness given to it from life is its best pursuit in life. So many times, I breathe the scent of flowers and grass, feeling the beating of life. I find there are too many imperfections in our lives. We can design the wonderful blueprints for our lives but can’t draw a consummate conclusion to our future, for many things in our lives never belong to us. I have been thinking: Why can’t we live like the grass? If we, between riches and poverty, choose less avarice and more indifference, then we will neither have so many desires in our lives, nor feel exhausted mentally and physically for these desires, nor toil our whole life for these desires. If we, between status and commonness, no longer pursue to climb the high mountain-peaks of being the best man but comply with the will of Heaven and play our roles cast by God, then in our lives, there will be less slaughter and fight that arise for the sake of status and there will not be so much burden. … This put me in mind of a passage of words: “… the first thing one must understand, when one sets foot on this earth, is where human beings come from, why people are alive, who dictates human fate, who provides for and has sovereignty over human existence. These are the true assets in life, the essential basis for human survival, not learning how to provide for one’s family or how to achieve fame and wealth, not learning how to stand out from the crowd or how to live a more affluent life, much less learning how to excel and to compete successfully against others. Though the various survival skills that people spend their lives mastering can offer an abundance of material comforts, they never bring one’s heart true peace and consolation, but instead make people constantly lose their direction, have difficulty controlling themselves, miss every opportunity to learn the meaning of life; and they create an undercurrent of trouble about how to properly face death. In this way, people’s lives are ruined. The Creator treats everyone fairly, giving everyone a lifetime’s worth of opportunities to experience and know His sovereignty, yet it is only when death draws near, when the specter of death hangs over one, that one begins to see the light—and then it is too late”.
God is righteous. His grace toward us has much for us to enjoy. We own all granted by God, but we do not realize what He has given us. We have become accustomed to taking for granted all that God bestows upon us, having no apprehension. We think that God is rich and bountiful and He has everything. Yet has it ever occurred to us: When, one day, we reflect back on the road we have taken, will our entire life be just a busy life? Will we only pursuit for the sake of fame and fortune? The grass knows where it comes from, and knows that adhering to its mission and multiplying green to decorate the world are the repayment to the Creator. While what do we repay the Creator who gives us life? Many times we only acknowledge Him and offer the grateful praise to Him. Little do we know how much painstaking effort and price God has expended on us, much less know what our missions entrusted by God are. We exhaust ourselves journeying to and fro for fame and fortune, yet in the end we find what we get is either pain or vanity. Even if we achieve something, don’t we finally still pass away with empty hands? Even King Solomon, after enjoying high status and great wealth, only sighed with emotion: “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had worked, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11). The grass feels content while we are weary in body and mind in our life.
No matter how perplexed we were and no matter whether we reach the peak or the lowest point in our life, our roles ordained by the Creator shall never be changed by us and our missions entrusted by Him shall never be denied or replaced either. Only when we know the Creator’s predestination and arrangement can we shake off the desire and demands of fame and fortune, no longer struggling or competing with fate, and only then can we live each day readily. If you yearn for the tranquility of heart, only when you come to the side of the Creator, listen to His voice and probe the value and purpose of life can you feel happy, relaxed and released. Just as the grass complies with the will of Heaven, only living for watching the pure land of its own!
