43
If the farmer's seed does not come up, because it has not received your rain in due season, or if it has been ruined by too much rain, it perishes.
44
But people, who have been formed by your hands and are called your own image because they are made like you, and for whose sake you have formed all things—have you also made them like the farmer's seed?
45
Surely not, O Lord above! But spare your people and have mercy on your inheritance, for you have mercy on your own creation."
46
He answered me and said, "Things that are present are for those who live now, and things that are future are for those who will live hereafter.
47
For you come far short of being able to love my creation more than I love it. But you have often compared yourself to the unrighteous. Never do so!
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.