Questions for a Quiet Christmas #5

We began our series of Quiet Christmas passages with those two basic questions in the background: "Do I love darkness more than light?" and "Am I a Child of God?" When we put the two together, we end up with: Am I hiding in the darkness? Am I living like a Child of God?  I'll try to remind us of those bigger picture questions every few days, to keep things in perspective. Today we go further into Isaiah 40:

6 A voice says, “Cry!”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
    when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
    surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
    but the word of our God will stand forever.

Summarized in a short sentence: Life is short. When we celebrate Advent, anticipate Christmas, and get all caught up in the memories and experiences of Christmases present and past, we are reminded of just how short life is, how fast each year goes by.  So the questions become: "What have I done with my life since last Advent? What am I doing with my life this Advent to make my life significant? What will I do until Advent comes next year to make every day of my life count? By no means is life an endless cycle of Advent seasons until the new Christmas movies come out in July; it is a series of days, months and years and lifetimes that are headed into eternity.  What stands stable? God, His Word, His plan and His purpose.  Are we allowing Him to affect our everyday lives from year to year? Are we allowing His light to shine ever brighter every day? Are we showing signs of life for the time we do have on this earth?