Life's Vanity

Not long ago I built a water fountain for our back deck. I took a pipe and attached a faucet to it. At the bottom of the pipe I attached a water pump and then fastened the whole thing to a bucket. Nothing fancy but it gives off a very relaxing sound of running water.

But where did the running water go? The water is pumped up out of the bucket, through the pipe, out of the faucet, and back into the bucket. On and on it goes without stopping. Surely this is vanity.

Solomon wrote of the vanity of life under the sun in Ecclesiastes. In chapter 1, he notes how the earth remains but one generation goes and another takes its place (1:4), the sun goes from east to west in a never ending circuit (1:5), the wind blows in a constant cycle (1:6), the rivers run into the sea but it is never filled and the water ends up back in the rivers (1:7), and what has been is what will be (1:9.) Our lives go in a constant cycle of things that never seems to get done.

We mow the yard only to mow it again the next week. We make the bed in the morning only to mess it up again that night when we sleep. We are born, only to die and have someone take our place under the sun (3:1.)

Yet God makes all things beautiful in His time (3:11) and has put something more into our hearts than the mere vanity of life. He has put eternity in our hearts. We can live with the knowledge that there is more to life than what we experience here. So be joyful and enjoy God’s blessings here (3:12-13.) While life is short and ends in death, what God does endures forever (3:14) so fear Him and keep His commands (12:13) and look forward to an eternal home with Him. There’s no vanity in that.