Vanity of Vanities?

“Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” That’s the way the NRSV and many other versions of the Bible translate Ecclesiastes 1:2.

In our Covenant Bible Study this week, we explored a different way of understanding the intent of that verse. The Hebrew word translated as vanity is hevel which actually means “vapor” or “breath.” The presenter described with her hand how we try to take hold of something only to find out that it is vaporous breath; it has no substance.

Combined with other parts of the book of the Teacher, we learn that life is the moment that we have now. The past is what brought us to this moment; we have no guarantee of anything past now. Some have read this to say that life is meaningless, but it really means that in this moment, no matter how simple the meal in front of us, we have the fullness of life.

As we celebrated Linda Garcia’s life we have been reminded just how true that is. This moment is the wholeness of life; this moment is the gift we have. Celebrate the gift of now, instead of trying to reach and grab hold of something that is vaporous breath. Turn to look at the person who is beside you now, whether family, friend, or stranger, and see in them the gift of God at this moment. The meal in front of you, no matter how simple, is the table at which God invites you to sit and eat.

How would we live if we truly took this moment as the sacrament of life, to know how holy life is?

 Ecclesiastes 3:14-15

I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.