The Grass Withers; The Flower Fades. But ...

Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All flesh is grass,
and all its loveliness is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fades,
When the breath of the LORD blows upon them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flowers fade,
but the word of our God stands forever.”

Isaiah 40:1-8