In the book “The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkein, Bilbo Baggins meets Gollum for the first time. Bilbo is lost and needs to find his way out of Gollum’s cave. Gollum will show him the way out if he can answer a riddle.  The riddle is this:

This thing all things devours,
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stone to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.

Bilbo is stumped.  Do you know the answer?  Take a moment to try to figure it out before looking at the answer below.

The answer to the riddle is “time”.  It’s so true.  Time will devour all living things, as well as everything else.  If you live long enough, you can see some of the effects of time.  Drive through a rural area sometime and take a look at the barns, sheds and possibly even houses that are deteriorated with time.  What you see there is taking place all around you.  Some things perish quickly (maybe even were designed to do so).  Other things, like the great Egyptian pyramids, seem to stand the test of time.  But, given enough time, everything will crumble.  And when Jesus returns, we’ll be made aware of just how temporary the the things of this life are.

“All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.  The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the LORD endure forever.” (I Peter 1:24-25).

Alan Smith