Catching Idle Butterflies

My Favorite Book

Have you ever looked back on your life and discovered different Scriptural passages or even entire chapters or books of the Bible seem to have applied best to your current circumstances and claim it as your own? Or perhaps you cling to one for a time, simply because you enjoyed it?

For me it's Ecclesiastes. I knew I should read it when I went to my local Bible book store looking for a small Bible to keep in my bag. I found one I thought was perfect, so I opened it up to study the size of the text to make sure I could read it without trouble (I'm getting older, so I have to be careful about too-small text. Squinting can be quite tiring after a while!)

I don't know if the other patrons thought I had lost my marbles, but I had to laugh at the first thing I read: "Meaningless! meaningless!" says the Teacher, "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

Here I am to purchase something that proclaims to have all the answer, and it tells me everything is meaningless! I bought that Bible, giggling as I did so (I even used it to verify the Scripture for this entry!). Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

I've read Ecclesiastes several times so far and even wrote a novella based on it. Now I get to study it even more in my Wednesday Bible study. We had just finished Hebrews and my pastor Kermit (yes, that's his real name), asked us if we wanted to continue on to James (another one of my favorites) or move to the Old Testament for a while. He made a few suggestions, and I said, "I prefer Ecclesiastes myself."

When no one else offered their own preferences, Kermit said, "We'll start on that one. It's one of my favorites, and I think the rest of you will enjoy it."

What's the point of this entry? Only to say if you haven't already, I recommend you also read it, especially if you feel life is as meaningless as Solomon felt when he wrote it. Reading it a third time still gives me joy, if for no other reason than someone many thousands of years ago knew exactly how depressing life can be sometimes, yet still found hope and a reason for living.