"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"Abraham Lincoln, from his "Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin" (September 30, 1859)
In Jesus' blessings and woes as recorded in Luke we are thrown into spiritual vertigo. Jesus tells us over and over that seeming blessings are actually woes and seeming woes are actually blessings. It is a list designed to drive us mad. What can we depend on if health and riches do not bring lasting joy?
Jesus is reminding us of the transitory nature of existence. States of being are always in flux. One thing is always becoming another. The truth of life is that, like the Lincoln quote above, "this, too, shall pass."
Attachment to the things of this world only bring hardship, pain, misery, and, even worse, spiritual death. What can we depend on?
At the risk of sounding sappy on the weekend before Valentine's Day, I would posit there is only one thing that lasts - love. God's steadfast love for us and our reflection of this primeval love for others is the only thing that has any lasting value. It cannot be kept or boxed or stuffed into an envelope and given to your sweetie. It is intangible and yet perhaps the most real thing we know.