Our Lives Will Matter Forever

“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!” Ecclesiastes 1:2

IN THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES, we hear the voice of the Preacher. He has looked at life from every angle and is convinced that our lives have no lasting meaning or significance. He has seen everything “under the sun” (verse 9) —meaning everything that can be seen from a limited earthly perspective —and his estimation is that it is all meaningless. Our lives, he says, are like the visible vapors of our breath on a cold night —there for a second and then gone. And yet, he says, God has “planted eternity in the human heart” (3:11). Within human souls, God has placed a longing for our lives to matter beyond our limited lifetimes.

The Preacher sees that people work their whole lives and then die, seemingly letting go of everything they’ve worked for. His recommendation is to eat, drink, and enjoy the fruits of your labor if possible, recognizing that we “came from dust and . . . return to dust” (3:20). And after death, who’s to say? The Preacher has no clear sense of what will happen when this life under the sun comes to an end.

Fortunately we can see something the Preacher could not see —something we want our children to see. Because we live in light of God’s fuller revelation of himself in the person and work of Christ, we know that there is life beyond these few years lived under the sun. We live in confident hope of resurrection life beyond the grave. Though this life sometimes seems futile, Jesus has accomplished all that is necessary for the entire creation to be set free from its futility.

Everything we’ve done in Christ, for Christ, and through Christ will matter forever. Life under the sun is not futile. Because we are joined to Christ, we know that our lives will matter forever.

Jesus, even now you are filling the lives of all who are joined to you by faith with meaning and purpose. I pray that ________ would be steadfast, immovable, always working enthusiastically for you, knowing that nothing she does for you is ever useless.