At the far end of our woods is an acre of bog. It is fascinating in every season. Gray sticks rise out of yellow ice in winter. The frogs croak loudly in spring. The bushes glow red in the fall. As I walked there one morning, a delicate mist floated over the water. The sun came up. The water vapor dispersed into the air and was gone.
A new day had begun.
Here and then gone. The author of Ecclesiastes says that human life is like that vapor. All is vanity, pointless, like a mist dissolving into nothingness. What will last?
In Jesus’ parable of the rich man, he also cautions his followers not to hold onto treasures that evaporate. He says to be rich in what matters to God. What matters to God?
After my mom died, my dad prepared to sell their house, which they had shared for fifty years. My brothers and I helped to divvy up their possessions. But it was not just accumulated stuff from sixty one years of marriage. My mother had poured hundreds of cups of oolong tea from that ceramic teapot. The Dickensian carolers watched from the piano every Christmas as presents were opened under the tree. The long cherry table had heard generations of laughter and conversation at anniversary dinners and birthday parties and gatherings of friends. The “stuff” had memories, memories of giving for the love of God and the love of others.
Chasing after possessions in order to hoard them for ourselves? That creates a life of vapor. Vanity of vanities—here and then gone like the mist.
What matters to God is not what we collect but how we spend our life. Our “stuff” is only as rich as the love it supports. Living a life for God and for others—that is what creates a treasure that will last.
Consider/Discuss
- The greed that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel implies an insatiable grasping for more, a ravenous restlessness to get “stuff.” He is not warning his followers about making a living, but about pursuing material security as their end goal in life. How can we strike a balance between having enough and grasping for more? How does our trust in God relate to that?
- How we spend our life—it matters. Today’s psalm asks God to “teach us to number our days aright.” Days turn into years and years turn into a lifetime of “yes!” to Love. At the end of our life, our stuff will be gone. But the love that we have given will remain. What treasures would you like to leave to those who come after you? What matters most to you?
Living and Praying with the Word
Lord our God, you know our hopes. We would like to live a life of virtue that would last beyond us. We would like to bear fruit that remains. But virtue begins with you. You are love, you are faithfulness, and you are enduring. You give each of us the freedom to respond to your offer of love, to choose yes, to dance with you. Sometimes we choose no and cement our feet stolidly onto the ground of a life spent centered around ourselves. Show us the way to say yes to self-gift. For then the mist of earthly life will rise and the eternal new day will begin, with you as the dawn. And then, joy of joys, what a dance that will be!