All is Vanity

Fellow Traveler,

As a wildlife photographer, my curiosity and expectation of seeing some unique bird or animal, then being able to capture their image for others to enjoy is always foremost in my mind as I walk the nature trails, visit a beach, or explore places like Yosemite. I’m always on the lookout for some new vista, sunrise, or sunset. At the same time I’m aware that it is an exercise in futility if I’m thinking, “This will be the greatest, best and last photo I’ll ever need to take.” I’ll never be fully satisfied with any one picture and will always be wanting to improve it. Such is the fate of a photographer.

Old King Solomon, in his book of Ecclesiastes echoes this truth – “All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” Ecclesiastes 1:8. Solomon’s book of wisdom is a solemn lament of our condition as fallen creatures. Life is futile. He says, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” and proves that though a person has everything in this life – riches, knowledge, creative genius, the best of job skills, the most pleasure imaginable, and the best health – nothing this world can give fully satisfies. We always want more, and it will all be left behind when we go to the grave.

Thankfully, there is a spiritual dimension of life, one that supersedes the negative “futilities” that we all experience. Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10. There is a new life that removes the futility of the old. There is a new perspective on the whole purpose of our existence. There is the realization that, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” II Corinthians 5:17. The heavenly gifts of love, joy, and peace are eternal. They are fully satisfying.

When Jesus met the woman at the well in John chapter 4, he offered her something she couldn’t find in this world, “living water.” He told her, “Whoever drinks of this [well] water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:13,14.
 
The answer to the futility of this life can only be found in the Lord Jesus, as He gives us new, eternal life. Let us praise Him today as we draw closer to Him in worship, prayer, and reading His Word. He has set us free from the curse we were born under and fills us with real, true, abundant, and all-fulfilling life.

Old Davy