HINTS OF FOREVER

Ecclesiastes 1:5-8

⁵ The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises. ⁶ The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. ⁷ All streams run to the sea, but the sea never gets full; to that place where the streams are flowing, there they flow again. ⁸ All these things make a person completely tired; a man cannot explain it; the eye does not get satisfied by seeing it, nor the ear filled by hearing it.

cycles

The sun, the wind, flowing streams – examples of things that keep going in cycles. As signs from God they are kind of deceptive. They give the impression that permanence is possible, because they never stop. Darkness comes, but the sun appears again. The wind keeps blowing, the streams keep flowing.

Solomon had just started his book by giving his conclusion, and his conclusion was that nothing was permanent. Then he goes and gives three examples that appear to contradict his thesis. He’s not crazy. He is just seeing hints from God that we are not doomed to an eternity of lives that end. No, there is hope that someday our lives will be just as constant as the cycles in nature.

LORD, we long for lives that reflect your permanence.