Ephemeral: things come, and eventually, go. As I write it is spring and we’re always excited about new buds and gentler weather now. Spring’s arrival also signals the end-the end of winter. It is an ending as well as a beginning. “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.” I John 2:15-17  This reminds me of a poem by Stephen Crane, which you may also know:

A Ball Of Gold
A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;
He climbed for it,
And eventually he achieved it —
It was clay.

Now this is the strange part:
When the man went to the earth
And looked again,
Lo, there was the ball of gold.
Now this is the strange part:
It was a ball of gold.
Aye, by the heavens, it was a ball of gold.

• Stephen Crane