[228 words]
“Vain life under the sun” is the majority theme of the book of Ecclesiastes. As you read you see the emptiness of earthbound life as it flows from the ink on the printed page. The inspired writer was not the first to ask the soul searching questions found in this great book. People from every corner of the earth and from all ages are seeking answers in the same things that Solomon tried. However, they keep coming up empty handed. Life sometimes is just hard to deal with.
Sometimes feelings of this hard life begin to descend a depressed mood and results in our lives being filled with discouragement over what has happened in our lives. If a solution is not found the temporary feeling becomes a lingering state of mind. Many, in our world conclude that life is not worth living. These people reasoned with themselves and found no hope in life. Solomon proclaims “vanity” and bewailed things “under the sun” about three dozen times in Ecclesiastes. However thoughts of God never escaped his mind. In all of the things listed in the book of Ecclesiastes we never find a point in which God was not concerned about the affairs of mankind. What a wonderful thought. God is concerned about His Creation. Yes, that is you and me.
Read Ecclesiastes 12:1,8,10-14 to see what Solomon concluded!
Jonathan Burns
Findlay Church of Christ
Sparta, TN