I was reading in Ecclesiastes yesterday. The book opens with “’Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher; ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’”
The Preacher was Solomon, the richest of all kings who had everything and anything a person could want. And when he looked it all over, when he experienced everything possible, to him it was all vanity, a thought which he repeats through the book.
Vanity, hebel, means emptiness, transitory and unsatisfactory.
There is one thought, however, that always intrigues me in Solomon’s discourse on vanity. It comes in Chapter 3:11, when Solomon says that God has set eternity in the hearts of men.
Paul also talks about that heartfelt longing for eternity. “For we know that if our temporary, earthly dwelling is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this body, desiring to put on our dwelling from heaven.” [2 Cor 5:1-2 HCSB]
Meanwhile we groan. Boy, do we groan. We groan when we face separations. We groan when we face sin and its consequences. We groan when we grow tired or sick or old or lonely or unsatisfied. We groan, longing for heaven [our home], for the presence of God [our Father], and for our loved ones there.
God has placed a longing in our hearts for heaven (eternity) that cannot be filled by anything in this life. There is something inside us that knows that our life in this world is not complete, not enough.
Deep within all of us is a knowledge that this is not our home.
