The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 5:15,
"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand."
From the perspective of life under the sun, this truth is painfully obvious. What we work a lifetime to build and acquire, it all gets left behind when we leave this life. While this is certainly a disturbing state of affairs when given reflection, the good news is that "life under the sun" is altogether a limited perspective. Solomon is showing us what we yearn for cannot be found here with lasting satisfaction.
As believers in Jesus Christ we have a much broader perspective. This life we live, from womb to tomb, "life under the sun" is only a smidgen of what we see. We have within our perspective life eternal beyond the grave. From the resurrection we will look back on this chapter of our lives as incredibly significant, as it determines our state of affairs in the next, but yet it will seem, I suspect, extremely short - just a moment, compared to life measured in eternal terms. What we gain through the fruit of our labor in the resurrection will not be left behind.
While this is wonderful news, there is even more. Because we have a perspective beyond what Solomon reports on in Ecclesiastes, there is more to say of the issue. Jesus taught, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." Matthew 6:19-20. We can, in this life under the sun, work for what will be waiting for us in the resurrection. These things we will carry in hand, into eternity.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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