Those wonderful grasses! What in the world would we do without them? The family of grasses can easily qualify as royalty in the kingdom of plants, for they are the most useful and needful to man of all the plants on earth. We think of wheat, from which bread – the staff of life – is made. It is a grass. We think of rice, which feeds most of the world’s population: It is a grass. We think of corn (or maize), which also feeds a large part of the world. It is a grass. We think of oats and millet, rye and barley: They all are grasses.
Without these cereal grains, as they are called, human life would only be possible on a vastly smaller, simpler scale. Without grass and its seeds there would be no grazing animals; and without horses and oxen, men would have to walk instead of ride, and carry their burdens upon their own backs.
Without grains there could be no teeming cities, for cities demand the kind of large food reserves which grains chiefly make possible. The world would have remained a world of subsistence agriculture – a world of only small farms and small villages. Hunger would never be far from mind and stomach, because only grains are capable of long-term storage. Modern civilization would probably be impossible even to dream of, for technology rises from abundance. Men whose time and energy is spent of foraging for the day’s needs do not dream great dreams.
If we look more closely at the nature of grass, we shall see how truly remarkable it is. For example, it is good for grass to be grazed upon, or mowed. Most pants grow from the tips of their stems, and if the tip is cut off the plant is doomed. It cannot grow any more. Grass, however, grows upward from the base, cutting the top of a grass plant merely encourages new growth from additional buds at the base. Furthermore, grass even benefits from being stepped on by cattle! Many types of grass spread by sending out runners, and when these are cut by the hooves of cattle they often send down roots at the point of the break. New plants grow from these new roots.
Thus there is a balanced, beneficial relationship between grazing animals and grass. The animals fill their bellies with tender leaves and stems, and are content. The grass, in turn, is encouraged to spread by being clipped and trampled, and also is fertilized by dung and urine from animals.
Man also is indebted to grass for the meat he eats, for the meat animals feed upon either the leaves or the seeds of grass. In many parts of the world, men also make furniture, ships, houses and even water pipes from grass – for bamboo is also a grass, and many useful things can be made from bamboo.
Grass also serves as a means of preserving precious soil. The spreading root systems of many grasses form sod, which absorbs rain and prevents erosion of the soil.
Truly, we are fortunate indeed that our world is stocked so widely with grass! But how did it happen? Was it an accident of nature that caused a family of plants to grow that almost begs to be eaten? Absurd! This is contrary to every principle discoverable in nature. How is it, we may ask, that grass grows from the base instead of the tip, as with nearly all the rest of the plant kingdom? It is almost as though someone had deliberately designed a plant to be good for animals and man.
And that, we believe, is exactly the case. Someone did create grass with the precise characteristics needed to undergird civilization for man. The Bible identifies this “Someone” as God. In the book of Genesis, the Bible says: “God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with its seed in it, on the earth;” and it was so.” (Genesis 1:11)
God also made dry grass to be good for starting fires – thus giving us both tinder for fires and a powerful example of the impermanence of our physical bodies. “All flesh is like grass,” the Bible says, “and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls; but the Lord’s word endures forever.” (1 Peter 1:24)
We are not here for long. But we are someplace forever. This also is the message of the Bible. The patriarch Job was well aware of this, thousands of years ago. He said: “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth. After my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God…” (Job 19:25-26)
Job’s Redeemer has already visited the earth, and He will come again in glory. Job did not know His name, because He had not yet come. But because He has come since Job’s day, His name can now be known. The Redeemer’s name is Jesus, the Anointed One of God. We call Him Christ, which simply means “anointed one.” The Bible declares Him to be the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father.
The Bible also tells us that God does not desire that anyone should perish – that is, die a spiritual death. It is this that Christ came to conquer, and did conquer, for all who believe in Him. The Bible says, “The sting of death is sin… But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57)
Job’s Redeemer can be your Redeemer also, if you will call upon His name.
(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)