Nothing gold can stay

Farewelled a parishioner today. He had been deteriorating from physical and mental illness, so among the emotions were relief as well as grief. He loved icons, so we placed two of his favourite on the casket. All of the gold colouring throughout the sanctuary reminded me of the Robert Frost poem:

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower,
But only for an hour.
Then leaf subsidies to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.