Vanity of Vanities

Ecclesiastes:1:1-11
“The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher;
‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’

What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he toils under the sun?
One generation passes away, and another generation comes;
But the earth abides forever.
The sun also rises, and the sun goes down.
And hastens to the place where it arose.
The wind goes toward the south,
And turns around to the north;
The wind whirls about continually,
And comes again on its circuit.
All the rivers run into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full;
To the place from which the rivers come,
There they return again.
All things are full of labor;
Man cannot express it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing.”

So begins the book of Ecclesiastes. These words Solomon, the wisest man alive, wrote after looking to and fro and describing what he saw. That is how he began this book.

I imagine there is not one mother of young children who has not felt this sentiment, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” when looking with minor despair at her once again dirty house for the gazillionth time and realizing she cannot keep up with the mess. Well, I have that despair today, anyway. It seems that I no sooner get one room back to some semblance of tidiness than I turn around and the rest of the house has exploded (not literally, but you know what I mean). Perhaps the word despair is a bit strong, but if you’ve ever had the task of trying to keep the house clean along behind two little boys who have no idea what the purpose of the hamper actually is (not for lack of my telling them over and over again repeatedly, mind you), and who just this morning discovered the “give away” box and realized that the junk they haven’t even realized has been in there for the past several months is something they cannot live without, and who are seemingly incapable of even seeing the whirlwind mess in their room, or even if they do see it do not see the purpose of keeping it in some semblance of order, a baby girl who just recently and very cutely has discovered the plasticware cabinet and the pots and pans cabinet and is delighting in pulling every single piece out into the kitchen floor and crawling into the cabinet herself to get to that one last lid that has escaped her joy, and a dog who I fear is starting to show the affects of aging by having potty accidents on the freshly steam-cleaned carpet (or worse my bed, oh yes!), then you probably know that same feeling of the overwhelming sense of uselessness when you enter one of those dirty, messy rooms to try to contain the disorder. I know, I know, these are just the joys of motherhood, but for me, there are days when I feel overwhelmed with the relentless fruitlessness of it. That was just me being honest.

Last Sunday, at the church I was visiting, our Sunday school teacher mentioned that the book of Ecclesiastes is his favorite book of the Bible. I started laughing because I had just read it during my daily Bible reading and it seems like an odd pick for a favorite book. Kind of a downer, if you know what I mean. I wasn’t the only one laughing, by the way. Anyway, once he explained I got what he meant. He said that yes, apart from God, all is vanity. Apart from God, you just get up work, eat, sleep, wash, rinse, repeat in an endless cycle and all is vanity. One day you’ll die and years after things won’t have changed much. That is an effect of the Fall and the curse. BUT, look how Solomon ended the book. This is the end of Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.”

Though what I do day in and day out may be incredibly insignificant in the world’s eyes (vanity and chasing after the wind – and, believe me, in our increasingly child-unfriendly culture the stay home mom who sees this as her career, not just a temporary holding position until the kids are a little older and she can get back to her ‘real’ job, is sometimes seen as an oddity), when done as a sacrificial love offering to the Lord, it is very significant. Sure, there are days when all I can see are the mess, and despair can threaten and loom, but overall, this is my joyful service. Sure there are days when fears for our kids raise up in my mind and I wonder if we are making the right or best choices for them and teaching them well enough the things that matter and trying not to worry that my mistakes will be so many that they have a hard time learning those important lessons and internalizing them. Raising these kids to understand that the fear of God and loving His commandments is man’s all is by no means insignificant or vanity of vanities. And I know that they are really in God's hands. Though I want be faithful to teach them well, it is He I must trust to draw them to Himself and open their eyes and hearts and minds. Though my house may not always be the neatest, it isn’t beyond Him. I am making it my practice to start each day in prayer, praising God and petitioning Him for the will and the means to do the seemingly insignificant tasks well and with a joyful heart. I have a long way to go. But I want to do a better job of keeping our home tidy, orderly and peaceful, though while the kids are young it is probably unreasonable to expect it to ever stay as neat as I want it to be, so I’m trying to let some of that go and slow down and listen to the kids instead of getting frustrated because of the mess, because God sees the secret things. And they matter.