Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:

“‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly
meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’ What do people
gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?”
Ecclesiastes 1:2–3


Under the sun” refers to life on earth. The unwritten law of
the physical world we live in is “he who dies with the most
toys wins.” People dedicate their lives to acquiring the
nicest homes, the fanciest cars, and the latest technological
craze. However, at the end of life these things don’t matter at
all. You can’t enjoy your toys when you’re dead, and since
that is everyone’s destiny, what’s the point of working toward
all those useless things in the first place?

Solomon teaches that nothing we can accomplish
“under the sun” has real, lasting value. However, there is also
life “above the sun.”

Above the sun exists another world, the spiritual world. That
is the only place where anything we acquire has true worth.
And the types of things we can acquire that have real, lasting
value aren’t things at all. They are our good deeds and service
to God. Only these things will be with us forever, and only these
things have meaning.

As we sit in our flimsy huts with their insubstantial roofs, we
realize how fleeting and vulnerable anything we build in this world
truly is. Our vision isn’t clouded by a sturdy, secure roof which
blocks our view of the great expanse beyond the sun and moon.
We can see past all that and recognize that life “under the sun”
is only a corridor. Above the sun is where we will ultimately live,
and it is only there that life earns its meaning

With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

(excerpts from Holy Land Moments)