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Theo Tigno•
9/23/2004 11:43 am
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Thursday, September 23rd 2004 |
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays. The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises. Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds. All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going. All speech is labored; there is nothing one can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.
What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!" has already existed in the ages that preceded us. There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them.
Dawg's thought:
Today's prayer intention is for wisdom during this election.
"To harbour the harbourless" (or "shelter the homeless" or "welcome the stranger")
Qoheleth was probably was not a popular guy. I can just see him at the parties...
--
"Dude, why the heck do you have to be such a downer? Can't you just lighten up?"
"Vanity of vanities, I tell you! There is nothing new under the sun!"
--
Yet, somehow, his book is one of the Wisdom books. Maybe he has attained something that we don't know. Maybe he knows something that we still struggle with. Maybe he has lived his life and saw how God is constant, and that there is nothing that he can do to change God. Maybe he sees that through how nature works. Maybe he sees how there are many who strive to get ahead in life only to attain the same dignity they were born with.
Maybe he came to a realization that our need to feel special and feel loved is not wrapped up in what we do. We might look at someone who is homeless and think that we are somehow better than them. We might look at someone who is need of shelter as someone who need us, forgetting that it might be them we may need.
It is vanity to think of yourself as better than the stranger, or the homeless, or the harborless. One day, we will all have one home in heaven, hopefully. We should all learn to live with each other as we welcome in the unwanted into our own lives, and support those without a home with our treasure and our hospitality. Take care and God Bless.
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