Time flies! When you realise this, and that you can’t slow it down what do you do? Do you try and cram in as much as you can? Try and fit in as many experiences as you can, try and get to the top of your career, make a name for yourself?
The book of Ecclesiastes wrestles with the frustrations of life passing so quickly and questioning what it’s all about.
The book opens and closes with the expression “all is vanity” or “meaningless”. Yet the writer of this book (Solomon) cannot be saying there is no meaning or all is vain, since a number of times in the book he says that some things are better than others – there is meaning! The Hebrew could also be translated as “breath” – all is breath, in other words, life is short and hard to grab hold of. It’s like your breath on a cold morning, you can see it, but it soon disappears, it’s a vapour. Try and grab hold if it and it vanishes all the more quickly.
Life is like that, it goes so quickly, and if you try and find meaning in it, it just vanishes even quicker. How can we not despair when we realise this?
The wisdom of Ecclesiastes is learning to see all of life as a gift from God. Rather than striving to gain all you can, start to enjoy everything as a gift from your loving heavenly Father. If you look to anything or anyone else to fulfil you, you will be left feeling empty, but when you see all of life as a gift from God, you can start to find joy.
It’s not that when you’re a Christian that your life is suddenly free from frustrations and your children never get sick. It’s just that you know a loving heavenly Father caring for you throughout it all and you can start to take joy in the gifts He gives you along the way.
Wonderfully we can also know that our Lord Jesus entered into this world and experienced the pain and frustration, and what’s more has done something about it. One of the times we see this is just before Jesus heals a deaf man, we are told that “he sighed” (Mark 7:34). The word is translated in Romans 8:22 and 2 Corinthians 5:2 as “groaned”. Jesus is groaning with the deaf man at the frustration in this fallen world. It is wonderful that Jesus understands, but even more wonderful, he does something about it. After Jesus heals the man we are told that He has done all things well. David Gibson, author of an excellent book on Ecclesiastes, says this is a reminder of how the original creation was described in Genesis 1. Here is Jesus giving a glimpse of what the world will be like when he remakes it. Because of His truly meaningful death and resurrection in history, He can get all who trust in Him to the new heaven and new earth. Until that day, we will groan with various trials, but we can also enjoy His blessings and kindness to us on the way as we enjoy life as gift rather than trying to grab everything.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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