The last word

“I die the king’s faithful servant, but God’s first.”
― Thomas More

(the lifeless woody stem of a pumpkin / Julie Cook / 2014)

Guilt remains guilt; failure remains failure.
This is the one reality that in our life has cost and will still cost all of us the most tears.
What has happened has happened for all time.
The second fearful thing, however, is that there is no moment of standing still, that everything is going forward in eternal change and to a particular goal, to death. . .
Unmercifully, time moves beyond the moment: the moment of bliss, of joy, of blessedness, of desire. . .
Desire in the world is passing away, because the world is passing away (1 John 2:17). . .
What are a few centuries of fame in the history of God’s world, in view of the primeval stars?
What are all the culture, all the beauty, and all the power of God?
Dust, a drop in the ocean, a leaf blown by the wind, a nothing. . .the earth is passing away and the world is passing away; time rules over them both–that is, to say it quite clearly: death rules over everything.
Time and death are the same.
The world is a world of dying and death.
Everything that happens in it is only a penultimate compared to the ultimate: death.
Therefore, the last word about the world is not life and joy and desire, but transition and death.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Vol 10 Barcelona, Berlin, Amerika 1928-1931