LIVING THIS THING CALLED LIFE (PART 8)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”—before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when people rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!”

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we look at this eighth part of the series, Living This Thing Called Life, the word of God has one simple message for us:

Remember your Creator.

It’s a no brainer, right? I mean, of course we are to remember God as we live our lives. But how many of us have forgotten Him when we have been in the midst of hardship or difficulty? How many of us have written Him out of our life when everything was super and we were living free of trouble?

If we’re honest, I think everyone will say that there has been a time when they failed to remember God or some promise God has made regarding support for His created people. Given this, it’s a blessing to have the following reminder from the Book of Ecclesiastes?

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”—before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when people rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!” Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. We’re not told what years encompass “youth” but we get a sense that it’s those years before we age to the point where life becomes more and more difficult to live, where we become wearied from many years of labor and toil, where we get to the point where we encounter physical, and sometimes mental, limitations that impact the way we are accustomed to live, where we maybe start to lose our zest for life in general indicated by the following symptoms from our scripture:

- We find no more pleasure in the years we are given to live, the years before the sun and light and moon and stars grow dark and the clouds return after the rain.

- The keepers of the house tremble and strong men stoop.

- The grinders cease because they are few and the sound of the grinding fades.

- Those looking through the windows grow dim.

- The doors to the street are closed.

- People rise up at the sound of birds only to find the songs are growing faint.

- People are afraid of heights and dangers in the streets.

- The almond tree blossoms and grasshopper drags itself along and yet people fail to find their desires stirred.

- The silver cord is severed, the golden bowl is broken, the pitcher is shattered, and the wheel is broken at the well.

- People go to their eternal homes and become dust, their spirits returning to the Creator God who gave them. The deaths drive the mourners into the streets.

Yes, life does eventually draw to a close but it doesn’t mean we need to be any less excited or feel any less blessed than we did when we were younger. For the same God who made us and sustained us in our youth is the same God who will sustain us and strengthen us in our latter days.

We need to remember this, ever keeping God, our Creator in mind, as we grow older while living this thing called life

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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