The Teacher (writer of the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes) chimes with the weariness and pessimism about life that many people experience, a sense of futility, meaninglessness and emptiness at the inevitability of death and the suffering around us. People long for meaning but, reflects the Teacher 35 times, “all is vanity”, hollow and empty. Life is full of illusion and delusion.

The Teacher recognises human beings have little control over the world. Freak weather, droughts, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, deadly viruses, human error etc. bring the most dazzling human achievements to nothing, sometimes in a split second. ‘What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?’ he asks, many times.

The Teacher tried the usual remedies to alleviate his sense of lost-ness but nothing makes sense in the face of death and ‘vanity’. He realises no object, pleasure, or relationship is guaranteed to last or ever completely satisfies. All pursuits – business, leisure or intellectual - are a dead end - the experience of many rich and famous celebrities who suffer depression and turn to substance abuse, suicide or multiple marriages. The Teacher comes to see that ultimate meaning lies in God, who gives us all we have: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God’.

In life’s problems and uncertainty, living gratefully, caring for others and for our world, knowing we are loved by God is our meaning too. ‘Every day may not be good but there is something good in every day.’ (Anon)

with love and prayers