reminding us what matters

In our One Year Bible reading for today, we hear Jesus teach His disciples what really matters. The selection is from Mark 12:38-13:13. The disciples are impressed with the stonework in the Temple. They point it out to Jesus and He says, "Yes, it's impressive. But not one stone will be left on top of another."

Kind of puts it in perspective, doesn't it? No matter how amazing the art or culture is where we live, it will one day fall apart, like the statue in the Ozymandias poem by Shelley. "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair..." he says, but it's all sand around him.

C. S. Lewis points to this fact pretty poignantly when he says that people live longer than countries do. When we realize that humans are eternal beings, and will live forever, we realize that what we do for a person is, in the end, more important than what we do for a country.

What have you done for a person today?

God, thanks for reminding us what's important.