Eternity In Our Hearts

Dear sister,

This week I started reading Ecclesiastes. It is an odd book. The theme that Solomon seems to be driving home is that everything is meaningless. It doesn’t sound like a particularly biblical message, does it?

Ecclesiastes is about a man who had everything the world had to offer. Solomon even says, “And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure” (2: 9, 10). He had fame, honor, great riches, and every pleasure known to man. Yet, he says, “All is vanity.”

Today we see the heart of man pursuing satisfaction in similar things—fame, fortune, sex and every pleasure imaginable—there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). But Solomon confirms from experience that even all of this does not satisfy the longings of the human heart. Moreover, Solomon seems to be asking, “What is the point of my toil? Why am I working so hard?” He acknowledges that earthly rewards are temporary and our desires are never fully met.

Maybe you’re asking the same question. You think, “I wake up; I go to work; I come home; I eat, drink and sleep; and the next day I do it all over again.” Perhaps you, like me, are looking for meaning in the mundane and purpose in the repetitive. We enjoy the fruits of our labor but not without sometimes making them our idols. We experience pleasure but it never lasts. So what is the point?

The funny thing about the apparent vanity of life is that this is how God made it. Yes, the world we live in is broken and not how God created it to be, but he did establish seven days that would repeat every week, and he established morning and night, a cycle earth would complete daily. He intended for man to work six out of those seven days every week. We are to honor the Sabbath weekly, etc.

So how does Solomon answer our question? In chapter 3 Solomon says, “He [God] has put eternity into man’s heart” (v. 11). We weren’t created for the temporary and fleeting. Our hearts were made for eternity, to live in perfect communion with God. Consequently, the things we experience on earth will never satisfy our hearts. We are longing for something much greater than this world will ever be able to offer. So let us seek to honor God by living for eternity in the every day.

Yearning with you,

Kayla