We took a chance that night. My husband wanted to go to the coast, about 20 minutes away, to capture the sunset with his newly revived photography interest. The weather app said cloudy without even a chance of sunlight. Being free of any other obligations, we decided to go anyway. We might not catch a glorious sunset but standing high on the cliffs above Torrey Pines State Beach is never without its own beauty. Just watching the waves take their turns kissing the beach, people and dog watching, silently encouraging each surfer as they paddle furiously to catch one more wave before the light is gone, peering with hope to see a dolphin or even a whale spout – it’s all the draw of standing at the edge of the sea.
We hopped on our Vespa scooters (realizing too late we weren’t dressed for the chilly air!) and wound our way to the coast. The “parking gods” were with us and we found a place to park with the beachside cliffs just over the short berm. At first the sky was just as the weather app had predicted – slightly gloomy. For some reason we kept watch.
Off on the distant horizon a glimmer of gold began to break through the greyness. Minute by minute a tear in the clouds began to emerge. The scene soon revealed a fiery, heavenly furnace with bright golds, oranges and red bursting through the clouds. As the sun continued its nightly, predictable path to the west, soft pink and blue cotton candy-like clouds joined the canvas. At one point the sun itself made an entrance in blinding suddenness. Its rays glowed across the surface of the sea. As it lowered further and further toward distant lands, the furnace became a gentle glow of a dying campfire. My eyes drawn into the soft light of God’s glory on full display.
Soon the torn sky began to heal with clouds marching together to close the scene. And those of us standing there wanting to squeeze every ounce of beauty out of what was before us looked around and finally breathed.
Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course…All things are wearisome more than one can say.” Ecclesiastes 1:4-8
It seems easy to enjoy life when surrounded by such beauty set before us. An hour of admiring the ending of another day. Yet, how often do we get caught up in what King Solomon repeats throughout his study of life in Ecclesiastes, “the meaningless life?” We wake up each morning with our to-do list firmly planted at the front of our mind. We trudge through our morning routine and either go off to work or begin our work at home. We stop for lunch then pick it all up again. Dinner time, tv, reading, our evening routine, and then to bed. It’s the life Solomon laments in its “routineness.” He asks what is the point of our toil (Ecc 1:3)? The sun rises and sets and nothing ever changes. It’s meaningless.
Now I warn you. The book of Ecclesiastes has its pitfalls just as the Book of Job. There’s danger in opening either book and grabbing a piece of scripture to represent the whole message. It’s why I avoided quoting Job in any post for a long time. And the first few chapters of Ecclesiastes could be used in destructive ways. But I’m going to give you the spoiler – life is meaningless, unless you have God as your Lord. We will toil for selfish or pointless reasons. We will lose or not ever have any hope. We will feel like prisoners. We might even see God as evil or unloving. We lose sight of how beautifully made this cyclical world really is.
But God.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day." Genesis 1:1-3
King Solomon was gifted by God to be one of the wisest men ever to exist. But I find myself challenging him straight away when he says, “Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.” (Ecc 1:10)
Why do I disagree to some degree with that statement? Because God is the god that bursts into our lives and upsets the world from time to time. There once was nothing and He created something magnificent! There was a time the sun didn’t rise or set. A time were there weren’t any seasons. God then gave us constants like knowing the sun will rise in the east and set in the west, every. single. day. of our human existence.
But then He goes and puts His finger to the artist’s canvas again for that unique sunset, the duplicate of which will never be seen again. The giant oak tree in front of my daughter’s house will bloom this spring again and produce giant leaves. In the fall the leaves will change color and fall to the ground. The cycle goes round and round. But each new leaf will never look exactly like another. The fall color change pattern will never be repeated exactly the same.
And you, when you were formed in your mother’s womb, may look like your parents, you may have some of their mannerisms, you may have similar beliefs about the world. You generally look like everyone else and your body performs pretty much like everyone else’s. But you, you will never be repeated. His artist’s finger has touched you and made you beautiful. Yes, you. You with the aches and pains. You with the slightly longer left leg than right. You with the hair you always wish were the opposite. You with that funny freckle right there.
In the infinite wisdom of the Lord of all the earth, each event falls with exact precision into its proper place in the unfolding of His divine plan. Nothing, however small, however strange, occurs without His ordering, or without its particular fitness for its place in the working out of His purpose; and the end of all shall be the manifestation of His glory, and the accumulation of His praise.
B.B. Warfield
In His omniscient wisdom He gave us constancy and variety all at once. We can thank Him for both. He gives us blessings and trials – all so we can give Him glory for His hand at work. It’s not meaningless monotony God created but a sturdy white canvas ready for something new each day.
Friend, like I said, it is easy to take an hour and enjoy a sunset. But let me finish the story of our trip to catch the sun on its nightly, guaranteed journey. You see, the city where we chose to park is very strict with their parking. We rolled up our little Vespas to the perfect spots and decided not to walk the half block to pay for parking passes (I think it’s their evil plan to spread the meter machines so far apart). After watching God’s performance, we hiked back to our rides. And yes, each had a $50 parking ticket. Did we let it ruin what we had just witnessed? No, we knew we had willfully disobeyed the set rules. Instead of getting angry I said, “Well, we stayed home for our date night this week so we can just look at this as our date night. A bottle of wine and a nice meal would’ve cost us just as much!” I shocked myself realizing the work God has done in me. How He has changed this typical, average woman into one that gives Him the glory. I enjoyed the lesson and message He set before me – follow the rules and don’t be lazy.
This year the Lord has put upon my heart to “ENJOY.” Not just seek joy, but as a friend noticed, to take action. Enjoy is a verb, not a feeling. When I researched “enjoy” in the Bible, I found it repeated throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. So, for the past few months I’ve been reading, researching, noodling and most of all praying. And here we are with the new series, “Enjoy Life — From meaningless to meaningful.” I’ll be posting a least once a week for the next few weeks. To be honest, the Holy Spirit and I haven’t worked out the full length of this series.
I want to leave you today, however with this piece of scripture and a quote by Warren Wiersbe to encourage you to enjoy today, enjoy this hour, enjoy the sameness and the fact that you will never have another day quite like today. Enjoy not only the good, but the bad and sometimes ugly. Because the Lord is always with you. He can always be found touching your life. When we believe that, we can see Him making all things work for those who love Him. Without Him, everything will seem so meaningless.
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-30
“Since early dawn, that bird has done nothing but try to survive. He’s been wearing himself out hiding from enemies and looking for food for himself and his little ones. And yet, when he gets to the end of the day, he sings about it.”
Warren Wiersbe
Enjoy.
emboldened.net 