I recently read about an elderly lady who was asked to recite her favorite Bible verse.
“And it came to pass,” she replied.
The person asking was confused and said, “But that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Yes, it does,” the woman explained. “I know that when a trial comes, it doesn’t come to stay; it comes to pass. It’s not going to be around forever.”
The phrase “it came to pass” actually appears more than 450 times in the King James Bible translation. While it usually means something like “it happened,” I like the elderly lady’s take on it.
The nature of life is for things to begin and end, to arrive and depart, to come and to pass. While that can sometimes be sad, even heartbreaking, it’s not always bad. In fact, sometimes it’s a very good thing.
I can think of several things I’m quite ready to see pass, not even counting my personal list of aches and pains. Like all this presidential election brouhaha, for example. I can’t wait until the trash-talking media circus is over. Can I get an amen? Yes, I thought so.
I know we have the best form of government on the planet, but that probably says more about the sorry state of this world than the excellence of our government. I think only the political pundits will be sad to see Election Day come and go.
Another thing I’ll be glad to see pass away are clothing styles that look good only on the seriously svelte. Laws have been passed to protect the public from less offensive sights than me in “skinny jeans,” so I refuse to ride this particular fashion wave. Boots do look better with skin-tight jeans, but at my age, I’d rather look like a Royal Canadian Mountie than wear unforgiving britches.
Styles come to pass and then always seem to come again, so I’ll just look uncool and wait for the fashion-go-round to circle back.
Home decorating styles come to pass, too. Remember shag carpeting, avocado-colored appliances and popcorn ceilings?
I recently worked very hard to refinish a ’60s-era dining room buffet to give it an updated, “distressed” look. The whole time I was sweating over that piece, I second-guessed myself, wondering if “distressed” furniture was just a passing fad. I hope it doesn’t pass before I do because I sure don’t want to undo what I did.
It usually takes me so long to figure out if trendy bandwagons are worth jumping on that by the time I finally decide to get on board, the bandwagon has moved on.
For better or worse, almost everything “comes to pass” in this temporary, disposable world. Almost everything, but not the most important thing—God. His character, words and plans never become obsolete or change to suit cultural whims and fancies.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever,” Isaiah 40:8 says.
When Jesus was crucified, some thought that would be the end of Him and His message. They hoped He had “come to pass,” like so many religious fads and cults do.
But the enemies of Christ were wrong. Hundreds of eyewitnesses literally saw the resurrected Christ. And two thousand years later, countless lives like mine are still being transformed by this One who rose from the dead and defeated sin, death and hell.
Lots of things in this world “come to pass,” but Jesus is here to stay.
Jesus—the same yesterday, today and forever—says, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20b)
Those who don’t want to bend their knee may try to bend that truth, but it simply won’t be bent.