For Reading and Meditation:
     Ecclesiastes 1:3-7

Francis Schaeffer wrote that there are times “when a negative message is needed before anything positive can begin.” That sums up the Book of Ecclesiastes. It seeks first to silence us with the utter futility of life before turning our gaze to the one and only reality – God. In the passage before us today the author begins the task of dragging us through the undeniable facts manifesting the pointlessness and the emptiness of life in order to show us that we must look elsewhere than the world around us for the water that our souls so deeply crave. Three things are said about life without God – it is boring, fleeting, and repetitive. “What does man gain from all his labor … ?” asks Solomon. Some people enjoy working for a living, but most don’t. They watch the clock, fantasize, make up mental games – all designed to fill the time until the workday is over. If we do not see our work as imitating the creativity of God, then it can become exceedingly boring. “Generations come and generations go,” says Solomon. Life is so fleeting. How small and insignificant it makes us feel. Then think about this, continues Solomon. Every morning the sun rises, sets, then the next day the same thing happens … and the next … and the next. Life is so repetitive. The same with the wind. Where does it come from and where does it go? Life on this planet is not all gloom, of course, but who can escape the conclusion that there is something about earth that just does not satisfy?

Gracious and loving heavenly Father, drive this truth deeply into my spirit that I am made by You, made for You, and my heart will never be content until it is filled with You. Indwell every empty space that is within me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.