Today’s Reading: Ecclesiastes 5, 6, 7, & 8

When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night— then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it. (Ecclesiastes 8:16-17)

And that’s really the point, isn’t it. No matter how hard we try, we simply can’t comprehend it all. For me, as I have come to that realization over a number of years, it has been incredibly freeing. You see, I always thought that to be a “good Christian” meant that I had to be able to give a solid answer for any question someone could throw at me. Realizing that not only do I not have to have an answer for everything, but that I can’t know the answer to everything allows me the freedom to not know!

There are a lot of things that seem meaningless in this world, but, as the author suggests, few things that we can truly understand. Our comfort is in knowing that God is all-wise – that he knows it all and understands it all. And so, when I see a terminally ill child or someone starving and living in poverty, I don’t know why that is happening. I do know who understands it all and that he’s got a plan in place that is larger than any one individual or their circumstances.

It may not make your situation any more bearable to know that God understands and has a plan, but at least you should take comfort in the fact that, for God, all is not meaningless. In fact, for him, there is meaning and purpose to everything.