And it came to pass…

If you grew up reading the King James translation of the Bible this phrase is very familiar.  And it came to pass is used 396 times.  One of the first instances is in Genesis 8:6

“And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made”

We’ve all heard the phrase; this too shall pass.  I saw an advertisement for a ring with the phrase in Hebrew engraved on the ring.  That piqued my interest. 

There is a legend that I discovered.  “King Solomon was trying to humble his wisest servant, so he asked him to perform a seemingly impossible task: to find something that did not exist. He requested a magic ring — one that, if a sad man wore it, he would become happy and if a happy man wore it, he would become sad.” The story suggests that the servant could not find anything of such nature. So, King Solomon decided upon himself to go to a jeweler and design a ring with the inscription in Hebrew saying, “Gam ze ya’avor,” which means, “This, too, shall pass.”

A phrase that makes the happy sad and the sad happy.  Right now, this phrase, “this too shall pass” is giving me hope.  I watched a documentary on the Spanish Flu.  It was incredibly sobering to think of the loss of life during that event.  But it also gave me hope.  Why?  Because it passed.  Life went on.  Life was changed, people died, people grieved, but it went on.  That pandemic passed.  This current pandemic will pass.

That alone gives us hope.  However, as followers of Jesus Christ, as Christians, we have a much broader reason to hope.  I have been thinking a lot about that song, Because He Lives.  Yes, because He lives, we can have hope.  We are people of hope and prayer.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer”  Romans 12:12