It took twenty of them two weeks to finish. By the time they were finished, it measured almost seven feet across, one of the largest ones ever done in the West. Using a small metal funnel called a chak-pur, the Tibetan Buddhist monks used twenty bowls of colored sand to make their mandala depicting their view of the spiritual configuration of the universe. Drawing concentric circles, designs, and an image of Buddha Akshobhya, the sand art slowly took shape. This particular mandala, created at the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, was intended to be a symbol of healing and protection to America after the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

At the conclusion of the two week project of making this work of art, there was just one task left—to dismantle the whole thing, and pour the sand into the nearby Tidal Basin. Director Geshe Lobsanf Terzin explains: “It’s a gesture to share the prayers and blessings with the whole world. And to remind us of the impermanence of things.” (Smithsonian, March 2022).

It seems strange, doesn’t it, to labor so intensely for two weeks on a work of art, and then as soon as you finish, to gather it up, and literally pour it down the drain? We wonder how people could do such a thing.

But then again, maybe we act like “things” are permanent. Why is it that we spend so much time and effort on things that really are impermanent, and think so little of the permanent? Why is it that we act like we can take it with us, when we know we can’t? Have you ever seen a U-Haul trailer being pulled by a hearse?

The Master said, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed” (John 6:27). How much of our labor today is for things that really will not matter in the end?

When Paul thought of what God has done for us in sending Christ and raising Him from the dead, he was encouraged to continue serving God. “For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:11-18). 

Are we more interested in the temporal or the eternal? The things we see around us should remind us of the “impermanence of things.” Are you building on the rock or the sand. Are you seeking God’s wisdom or the wisdom of the world?