“The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.” These words, borrowed from Geoffrey Chaucer (1342?-1400), were selected as a motto by furniture maker Gustav Stickley (1858-1942). But Chaucer himself took the idea from Hippocrates (460-370 BC), the father of medicine.
Whether referring to medicine, craftsmanship, or life itself, the statement seems to hold true. Life hurries by, and the skills to navigate wisely come slowly.
Yet it need not be that way, as Robert Fulghum explained in his best-seller, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
“Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:” and he lists 16 simple lessons that could make such a difference in our lives.
He includes: “Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.”
And so the list goes. But there’s something else we need to learn in Sunday School that public school probably won’t teach us. The Bible uses the word “lost” to describe people who don’t know where they came from, or where they’re going. What are the landmarks that can help us find our way?
It’s a curious fact that none of the great days of history are found in the history books. Creation, the Fall of humanity, the Flood, the Rebellion at Babel, the Call of Abram, the Exodus from Egypt, the Law at Sinai, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion (it may get a footnote), or the Resurrection—all have escaped the historian’s notice.
Why are they relegated to the realm of fable? It’s not for a shortage of documents. Biblical manuscripts number in the thousands, while Caesar’s “Gallic Wars” has only ten good copies, dating 900 years or more after the time of writing. Yet nobody doubts his authorship.
Peter gives the real reason:
“In the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, ‘What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.’ They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of His command, and He brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.
“Then He used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.” (2 Pet 3:3-7, NLT)
Why are these road signs so crucial? Because without Creation, we’re nothing but breeding grounds for viruses. Without the Fall, we’re constantly disappointed that humanity gets no better. Without the Flood, people forget that God destroyed the world once and is going to do it again.
But of course, all these markers lead to the One who is The Way. His Incarnation as Man of Sorrows shows how much He cares. His Crucifixion reveals the only way of salvation. And His Resurrection, celebrated this weekend, marks out the solitary path through death into life eternal.
No one needs to be lost.
Article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch, Saturday, April 7, 2023.