“… at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne…” (Matthew 19:28, NIV)
I don’t know what it is like where you live, but courses near me keep closing. Oh, this isn’t a 2020 thing. It has been happening for a while. Now I think that if some of these course operators had known what a boom 2020 was going to bring to the game, they may have stayed open and tried to recover.
Courses can close for several reasons, but the most common is financial. That’s no surprise, and neither is this: On the slow, steady slip toward closure, those courses cut corners and the conditions show it. Grass creeps into the bunkers and the sand is depleted. The greens, even when cut, look ragged, with bare patches or furrows. The trees need pruning, and the turf in their shade is thin and desperate.
One of the lost courses in our area did its best to combat the obvious. Its marketing copy pronounced: “Our course offers terrific views and challenging play for golfers at every skill level. Well-groomed fairways and greens keep the course difficult yet friendly.” But when the comments at a popular online review site begin with “WORST COURSE I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!,” you’re not fooling anyone.
Even man and woman were perfect—right up until they exercised their option.In so many ways, this picture of a failing golf course is a metaphor for the world at large. Our only mistake is in thinking this is something new. The poet William Butler Yeats penned his contributions to the literary arena in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yeats held no Christian view of the world, but all those decades ago he saw clearly in his poem “Second Coming”: “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold” and “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned.”
Yeats, for all those dark words, was no more insightful that Jesus, who knew full well what was in the heart of each person (see John 2:24-25). What was there could not be trusted, because what was there was sin.
God’s creation, as we have been studying it, was miraculous and beautiful. Even man and woman were perfect—right up until they exercised their option. They said to themselves, “This little variance, this single bite of fruit, what can it mean beyond our family circle?” Quite obviously it meant a lot. On that day, things began to fall apart, and they are still falling. This is why our hope can no longer be in this world, but only in the one who made it. He alone can renew all things.
—
Jeff Hopper
May 14, 2021
Copyright 2021 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
OTHER DEVOTIONS IN THIS SERIES
Fast Forward 1: The Creator
Fast Forward 2: Light and Darkness
Fast Forward 3: Clouds in the Air
Fast Forward 4: Water and Weeds
Fast Forward 5: Skylights
Fast Forward 6: Wild Kingdom
Fast Forward 7: Man Alive!