What Will We Leave Behind?
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From Our Flowerbed,
Some Pansies for You
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The writer of Ecclesiastes put it this way:
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow.
8 All things are wearisome; more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has already been, in the ages before us.
11 The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.
- Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 New Revised Standard Version
John Webster (c.1580 - c.1625) wrote similar words in his poem entitled:
All the flowers of the spring
All the flowers of the spring
Meet to perfume our burying;
These have but their growing prime,
And man doth flourish but his time:
Survey our progress from our birth;
We are set, we grow, we turn to earth.
Courts adieu, and all delights,
All bewitching appetites.
Sweetest breath and clearest eye,
Like perfumes, go out and die;
And consequently this is done
As shadows wait upon the sun.
Vain the ambition of kings
Who seek by trophies and dead things
To leave a living name behind,
and weave but nets to catch the wind.
John Webster
Both of these men did leave their words behind. But in the broader scheme of things, even such wonderful words shall eventually pass away. Perhaps we can only leave behind that which we give away to others. Our generosity, our love, our compassion; These are the lasting things. The Apostle Paul put it this way: And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. I Cor. 13:13
What a wonderful world this would be if each of us did one thing each day to make life a little better for someone else. Wouldn't that make Jesus smile?
- The Old Professor
Copyright © Jay D Weaver - April 30, 2005
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