Recently I decided to read through the Book of Ecclesiastes and write haiku that captures it’s thought. It begins in verses 1-11 with an almost numbing melancholy. Creation seems to be, for the writer, an unending cycle of meaninglessness.
life is meaningless
begins Ecclesiastes–
weariness is the norm
Today perhaps we can appreciate this view in light of pandemic, injustice, and race riots. Disease and violence return like months of the year. But Jesus rescues me from this debilitating worldview. Ecclesiastes expected nothing new, but Jesus brought a fresh breeze from God, that cleanses the staleness of our inner rooms if we will but open the windows of our souls. It is a cleansing that renews my hope for a better day, a better world. It enables me to speak confidently for compassion, justice, and reconciliation.
As always, if you like what I have written, feel free to share it with others and encourage them to become followers.
Peace, LaMon
Pathways to God 
I will be sure to share this with Jordan soon. He is going to be reading through Ecclesiastes in the next few weeks and I want him to see this!
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I will send you other haiku as I write them. Some folks have suggested that Ecclesiastes speaks most clearly to older folks, but hopefully he will find something in it. It is one of my favorite OT books. In spite of his melancholy, he believes that God wants us to enjoy life.
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Thanks, LaMon. When I was a teenager/young adult, Ecclesiastes was one of my favorite books of the Bible. I’m still very fond of it. Today it sounds to me like the writing of an older man who is wrestling with the meaning of life — of his life — and in the wrestling he moves around among despair, surrender, acceptance, and the wisdom that comes from facing Reality with open eyes. And like you say, the writer believes that despite everything, God allows for joy.
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Thanks Margaret, it is always good to hear from you. Yes, I too imagine it was written by an older man, obviously from the upper classes. For what it’s worth, I was told by a long-time missionary in Thailand, that one of the favorite books of the Bible there was Ecclesiastes. And I can see why a Buddhist culture might find it attractive. At any rate, I am looking forward to some days or weeks in reading in it and writing haiku.
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Ecclesiastes is “under the sun” (27 times); in Christianity we have, “a light above the brightness of the sun”.
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Yes, David. I have often said that Ecclesiastes gives an accurate account of the way the world may seem without the hope of Christ’s resurrection.
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