Pray

Read: Ecc 2:14-18.

Meditation

We find a most peculiar encouragement in Ecclesiastes 2:17. Look again at the end of verse 17: all is vanity and a striving after the wind. All is a breath. All is fleeting. All is insubstantial. The blessing I am speaking about here is this: that life is short.

Now maybe that shocks you. Maybe you are thinking, short? I do not want life to end! I want to see my grandchildren. I want to enjoy the good things for as long as I can. And that is ok. It is ok to desire to see your grandchildren. In fact, let me assure you, one of the things Solomon will show us later in the book is how to enjoy life. He is not a killjoy, far from it.

But my point here is not to say that these things are not good. My point is to say that the affliction you are now suffering, the burdens you bear, they truly are momentary and light.

Ask anyone over fifty: Does life go quickly? You had better believe it. Life will fly by. And as you start looking back over the years, and you hear Solomon say life is but a breath, you realise, yes, it is so true.

Years go by. Decades. Life passes. Childhood. Teenage years. Your twenties, they will be over just like that. And in just a few more short decades you will be nearing the end.

We are tempted to fear this progression, to feel apprehensive about the shortness of our time. A much better approach is to see it as a blessed mercy. Absolutely, enjoy God and his gifts in this life. But see too that the shortness of life is a blessing.

Again, why do I say that? I say it because we can know with absolute certainty that these hateful things in life, sickness and suffering, death and disease, their power is limited, and it is waning. It is like winter in Narnia. This life is quickly passing, and we are small drops in a large bucket, but Jesus continues to move. The winter is thawing and the spring of a new creation is nearing; each day it is nearer.

And so when that day comes, when you close your eyes in this life for the last time, this is not a day of sorrow but a day of gladness, because to go and be with Christ is much better. And when you close your eyes on that day, you will open them again and you will behold unspeakable things, and all the shadows and darkness of this life will be gone. The sound of victory and joy and glory will greet you. The faces of long lost loved ones will be there, smiling. You finished the race. Your spouse, who you have not seen for thirty years, in Christ he will be there. The ache in your heart, the pains, the sense of loss at dear friends’ departure long ago, all these burdens will fall from your shoulders as you are reunited again.

But even this is not the best part. Because on that day you will see him, the One who died to save you, the One who rescued you from darkness. He will be there. You will see the wounds in his hands, his feet, his side. You will see the smiling face of the One who has loved you. And in Christ, if you have put your faith in him, you will be welcomed home.

And even this is not the end. At the last day, as the trumpet is sounded, our old bodies too will rise in resurrection, and a new heavens and a new earth will be there. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

A new world, Eden restored and enhanced. Blessing and light and life and wonder and hope and joy. All this is the heritage of those who are in Christ, who have put their faith in him, who have believed and followed.

This life is just a breath. It is a breath with numerous joys and blessings, and it is a breath with countless burdens and sufferings. There will be many dark days; we will suffer under the common curse. But either way, it is nonetheless still just a breath. And so these clouds that loom so dark above us now, these clouds that we so much dread, they will soon break, and the sun will shine, and we will know fully, as we know now a little by faith, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed.

Call me crazy, but the book of Ecclesiastes actually gets me excited, because it teaches me to enjoy life’s gifts without clutching at them, and it teaches me to look past today’s sorrows to a brighter future, and again and again it reminds me: not long. We are not long for this world, and we will soon see him who has loved us and saved us. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

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