Everything is meaningless … so says the writer of Ecclesiastes.
I think that writer was in the winter of their life! Maybe a bit bitter, full of regrets, disappointments.
I think too, that all of us have had such a thought. Perhaps even at much younger, earlier seasons in our lives.
We live and learn and work and play and some days we just shake our heads and wonder the meaning in it all.
We watch others struggle (or struggle ourselves), we see and hear of unfair, unjust and immoral acts and we just can’t see the rainbow in the clouds. Can’t see the forest for the trees. Can’t feel the cool air after the heavens thunder, shaking us to our core.
Why?
What is the point?
What is the purpose in all these days?
You know … I am not sure that there are (always) answers. I am not sure that God looks down on our melancholy view of the world and life and provides answers. For, I think, sometimes He is very aware that the most true answers might be heard as pithy statements that our ears receive like salt on our wounded hearts.
I think, that sometimes, he simply hears our agonizing questions and lets them echo back to us in silence.
I think, that sometimes, he wants us to feel the feels of struggle, to ask our questions and shake our fists, so that we remember that he is there … there to hear, not just our words, but our hearts … that he stays with us, as our offering is sincere anger or disappointment in our perception of His failure to act, to save.
I think, sometimes, he wants us to remember that his shoulders are wide enough, that he is not going anywhere.
I think, sometimes, he wants us to feel His feels. To be reminded that he too aches, mourns the meaningless of this sin-filled world.
because we cannot truly see eternity through rose-colored glasses.
Eternity, our eternity, is paved with the blood of his Son. It is the least meaningless act that ever was, or will be. It is sacrifice personified. It is meaning made flesh.
There is purpose in what seems meaningless.
Maybe the purpose is simply to tell God that is what we think …
then to listen to the silence,
to be reminded of his presence,
and the meaning of gift to us.
itsawonderfilledlife 