08/19/2026
LIFE IS FRAGILE by Melissa Strzala
I had some time in between doctor’s appointments to go for a walk. I decided I’d walk around a local cemetery. While looking at some older gravestones covered in moss, I thought, “Most people never hear of us even while we are here, and all too soon it will be as if we had never been here at all.” For almost all but the tiniest handful of us, the day will come when there is no trace of us in the memory of those on earth.
We are all merely dust. “Dust you are and to dust you will return” (Gen 3:19). Life is so short, and it can as easily be wasted as when lived to the fullest, so what does it all add up to? How do we make the most of such fleeting days on earth? Science, by its very nature, can give us explanations for things, but it cannot provide the meaning we are asking for. Philosophy has sharpened our thinking, but it hasn’t brought us closer to these answers. For all the skepticism of today, the wisdom of the ages still holds true: it can be found in a relationship with your Heavenly Father - your Creator. He loves you and gave you purpose.
We need to live an examined life. One where we find our meaning, identity, and purpose in Jesus Christ. There is meaning in everyone’s life because we are each significant, so we play our part in a larger and longer story. We may be made of “dust,” small in size, a blip in history, but we are created in the image of God, and “breathed into by the Spirit of God.” So we each have amazing worth and significance, and our little lives make glorious sense - even if it is not always apparent to us within our limited time on earth. So find your place in God’s story because… it’s eternal.
