Taking a short break from the writing challenge to give you this retelling of Ecclesiastes 12 (New Living Translation). Finding it fun doing this. Perhaps I should retell stories/verses more often? Hmmm. Enjoy. ^_^
Vanity of Vanities
Meaningless. Everything is meaningless. Vanity of vanities — everything is vanity!
I turn my eyes towards the sky, but the sun, the moon, and the stars have all been replaced by this thick blanket of darkness. Ominous clouds swirl about the heavens even though the rain has already long fallen.
This only means one thing. My eyes have grown dim.
My legs tremble. My shoulders stoop. My teeth — as my eyes — they are gone and are no more.
I have nothing more to live for. Every door to every opportunity has already slammed shut in front of my face. I have given up the daily nine-to-five a long time ago. But why do I wake up each morning still? Why, when I do, do the birds continue to sing? But why, though I know they are chirping, do I not hear even a single tune?
Meaningless. Everything is meaningless.
Heights and falling scare me now, as do danger in the streets. My hair is no longer golden — every strand is as white as snow. They compare me to a grasshopper and aphrodisiacs no longer turn me on.
I shall die later on.
My dust shall return to the earth. My spirit — will it indeed return to the God who made it?
Meaningless. Everything is meaningless.
I should have remembered Him while I was at the prime of my youth, before any of these happened. I should have made my Maker my front row and centre. I should have sought Him more than knowledge and books, more than booze and empty fun.
But now all must come to an end. The silver chord has snapped. The golden cup is broken.
As am I.
Would things have been different if I feared God? Would things have found meaning if I kept and obeyed His commandments? After all, it should have been simple — to simply love God with all I am, and to simply love my neighbours as I love myself.
But everything is meaningless. Vanity of vanities — everything is vanity.
Yet I heard God will judge us for everything we do — the good, the bad, the seen, the unseen.
Meaningless. Everything is meaningless.
End
.
.
.
When I get to the end of the road, would I want to be like that person crying out in disdain because everything is completely meaningless? Or would I want to be a person who would be crying out for joy having lived a life of abundance, a life of satisfying fullness (John 10:10b)?
It’s a choice. A simple one, really, that would boil down to this: Will I fear God and obey His very commandments? McManus says:
When we fear God, we fear nothing else. It is only in fear of God that we find ourselves free from the fear of death, of failure, and all the other fear that binds us. (from Uprising, page 242)
Misty Edwards also sums it up well in her song, Point of Life:
Knowing You is the answer to the riddle of the point of life. The point of life is You. It’s You. Loving You is the reason that I’m breathing. It’s the absolute — the point of life is You.
Meaningless? Everything is not meaningless. :)
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