A unique aspect of Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is the comparison of days to seasons. He starts out talking of the flower of the leaf , or its ‘prime’ when it is green (Frost). But, it is only so for an ‘hour,’ he says – then, no more (Frost). What does he mean when he says ‘leaf subsides to leaf? (Frost). This echoes a passage: ‘ashes to ashes; dust to dust’ (which isn’t Frost, but a Scripture verse actually) (esv, kjv ) This suggests that the green, or the vitality of the leaf, is in a sense not its essence; it can be a skeleton leaf, and still a leaf – but, is that skeleton the fullness of ‘leafness?’ And when it turns to dust, is the leaf dust just dust , or are the particles together the leaf? These might sound like rabbit trails, but they run “back to the sea” in the words of Howard Shore – back to the source of life (Google Search, Shore). Life goes back to the one who gave it (esv, kjv ). A day, with him, is as a thousand years (esv, kjv). And he breathed the spirit of life into the man he made out of dust, so that, one day, we could receive adoption as sons and daughters and enter glory (esv, kjv, Sproul). In our hearts, the Daystar will dawn, and in his light we will see light forever – and in his life we will live, and it will never fail or fade (esv, kjv). The soul that believes on him, though he die, yet will he live – he will be as a tree planted by streams of water, and the life he will share is Ever Green – for those who believed, one with him, the Light is our Life (esv, kjv). And, the one who planted the first garden creates us new as we yield our hearts to his hands – in, out of, and through every season. Looking around us, we can see “the little green stained glass windows” – the leaves that filter light and point back to the Son who rises in our hearts – and looking forward to the New Jerusalem, we ourselves become like “olive plants” or “fruitful trees” bearing fruit for the one who said “I make all things new-” truly, we ourselves are part of the “new creation” – the “first fruits” (esv, kjv, Burchard). Though our “bodies and hearts may fail”, “day after day we’re being renewed”(esv, kjv). Glory to God! We can, through Christ, flourish spiritually into old age, and anticipate an eternity of the new heavens and earth, where the gardener who planted Eden will outshine even his gifts, and will bring us joy again – and not only as before, but, having seen him, we will be so like him that we will be described as perfect. And not a boring, stodgy kind of perfect. For Christ was made perfect, and he is none of those things. A gold kind of perfect is what we will be. And we will be in the place he has prepared for us. And so, it can most truly be said in another way, in response to: what can stay? Everything gold can – not because of us, but because of who He is. 

Works Cited.

Frost, Robert. “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”

English Standard Version.

Google Search.

Howard Shore.

Emily’s Memory.

MusixMatch. https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Howard-Shore/The-Hobbit-The-Battle-of-the-Five-Armies-The-Last-Goodbye.

Burchard, Grace.

Note: RC Sproul used the term, “Dust to glory” in the context of a book and series by the same name.

Sproul, RC. Dust to Glory.

https://search.ligonier.org/?q=dust+to+glory

King James Version.