I’m tweaking some three year old Ecclesiastes sermons. What follows is an illustration that needs cut from it’s current position, but seems worthy of a home somewhere. So where to put it? The void is perfect.
Searching for satisfaction under the sun is like being thirsty and:
- picking up an empty glass and trying to drink from it.
- picking up a glass full of water and then realizing it was only a dream.
- paying a fortune for a glass full of water then taking a drink only to realize that it’s salt water.
- picking up a glass full of water when the glass shatters in your hand.
- picking up a glass full of water when someone runs by and knocks it right out of your hand.
- picking up a glass full of water, drinking the cool, clear, clean, crisp refreshing water, then immediately having a fatal heart attack.
The Conversation {2 responses}
During this pregnancy, I have gotten to experience the vanity of beginning to drink the highly desired (and needed) cool, clear, clean, crisp, refreshing water and immediately throwing it back up. While it’s still cool and refreshing, in fact. That is pretty vain as well. :)
Thanks for the very interesting post. I fouond it very thought provoking and if I may be so bold? I’d like to add to the dicussion.
I cannot say that I’ve studied the Ecclesiastes to heavily but, I find the observations you listed above a bit heavy handed.
As I read them I kept wondering why does it the glass break, shatter or the waters become bitter or indeed not there at all? That seems more indescretion on the part of the buyer or a freak act of nature at work (a bit to karmatically oriented in both cases).
I found myself being pulled towards these ideas…
I spent along time looking for the right glass, I tried alot of them and many were made with the highest of craftsmanship… So I bought the glassmaker and delighted in it for a while…
When I got tired of beautiful empty glasses I tried to fill them with everything I could. Good things, great drinks of all shapes and sizes. They were amazing and sated me but, in the end I just became more thirsty
So I searched longer harder and deeper for that most refreshing of liquids to fill my beautifully crafted hard sought after glass.
Then I found it! A clear fresh spring of sweet tasting refreshing water. I drank deeply of it also and my thirst was quenched…but only for a while.
This is the wind of winds the vanity of vanities and nothing is new under the sun.
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