Petra

Life is but a fleeting moment in time. We build monuments to commorate our triumphs, our heroes and our lives and in doing so we feel that we have conquered nature. Towering buildings with the most sophisticated engineering... surely they will last forever.

But alas time has different ideas. The time we are in now, our glorified 21st century, is but a blink of an eye in the enormity of God's universe. We are but dust and to dust we shall return - along with our grand monuments of achievement. Our towering buildings will one day crumble and fall and be taken up again by the earth. Covered with sand, earth and new growth only to be built over again in centuries to come.

The people of Petra, to be sure, never thought that their prosperity would end. They never would have thought that their grand facades built to honor their dead would ever become mere shadows of their intended splendour. Covered by sand and forgotten by time only to be uncovered centuries later. And the stories begin....

What did they mean? Who were they built for, these grand burial tombs? What significance did these people hold that they would deserve such dedication and artistry? Surely those who loved and honored them, and perhaps even they themselves, never thought that they would be forgotten by time.

But we but from dust and to dust we shall return...

If someone, centuries from now, were to excavate your home, what story would they make up for you? Were you a person of importance, surrounded by beautiful things, or were you a lowly worker toiling for a wage? Were you a person of faith, surrounded by religious artifacts or were you someone who worshiped mysterious black boxes with some sort of glass-like screen? Were you someone surrounded by people you loved or were you alone and lonely? Were you a lover of books or a collector of jars?

What story would they tell of you, these "things" that you surround yourself with?

Our time here is fleeting and even the memory of us will fade. But I do believe the things that we teach, the things that we share, the things that we pass on to those around us, will live on in some way. Not the monuments we build, either to celebrate fame or fortune, but the people that we meet who when they leave us, take something away from the encounter.

I carry with me the wisdom of generations past. Knowledge that I cannot quite name, cannot quite touch, which has been passed on through generations to me. To be kind, to be loving, to be affectionate, to be comforting, to be compassionate and most of all, to be faithful. All of these things have been passed on to me from the generations that have gone before. There will be no great monument built for me when I myself return to the earth, but I will carry on in the hearts of those who have loved me. No one will stand in awe looking meters high into the sky remembering Tara Livingston who was born and lived and died in the 21st century.

And I'm OK with that.