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Each month the Glen Park Gospel Church produce a one page newsletter called the Green Leaf. It's available from the chapel each Sunday. Anything that may be of mild interest will be published here.

Muriel Peterson

“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”
Isaiah 40:7&8 (AV)

On Monday evening at 9.45 Muriel Peterson left her suffering behind her and stepped into the presence of her Lord. In this text the Lord God is telling of His love and care for the people who are His. The text is so typical of Muriel’s experience! For quite some time now she has been a fading flower.

Muriel has not been well for many years and in the time she and Bob, her husband, have spent at Glen Park we have found her to be loving, quiet, gracious and uncomplaining, as her remaining strength ebbed and failed. Even during these days we have recognised her as one of the Lord’s beautiful creations, bearing in her nature many of the characteristics we also recognise in her saviour, Jesus Christ.

There are many examples of exquisite floral beauty. People flock to the Ballarat begonia festival simply to gaze at the intricate design and subtleties of delicate colour that these blooms produce. People trek in their thousands to Western Australia every spring, to walk amidst the abundance of wild flowers that nature alone has cultured, or to Renmark for the Rose festival’s abundant profusion of glorious colour. The sad reality is, however, that every blossom that ever was, or ever will be, will one day be tinged with brown, the petals will open and fall, the glossy leaves fade and dry. What was once proud to admire will droop it’s head and die.

No matter how robust and strong be every man, woman and child that ever lived, no matter how charming or beautiful the personality, no matter how brilliant or agile the mind, no matter how deep or quick the wit, all are destined, should time be on their side, to fade, and fail, and fall. Our text tells us why: the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it. God has placed a limit on man’s powers, for his own safety, ever since sin entered human experience. As it is, people think and act as if they will live for ever and can do anything; that we alone are responsible for our own salvation. When the spirit of the Lord blows upon the flower, our work, our achievements, our boasts and our resources fade, and fail, and fall. And we are gone.

Muriel however, found immortality. Our text also says the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. In this respect Muriel is unlike the flower. In her earlier years while still attending the Baptist Church in Auburn she put her trust in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and was born there and then into His eternal Kingdom. Since that time there has been a part of Muriel that cannot die. God has given His word. Jesus said initially to His friend Martha, but also to Muriel and all of us, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. While she was living with us here, she heard His word and put her trust in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. At a quarter to ten, our time, last Monday evening, Muriel, after many weary years, as quietly and calmly as she had lived, left us, and joined the throng of like believers around the throne of the Lamb, to add her voice in praises to His name.

Her life was her testimony. Will you heed her example?

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