Monday, August 27, 2012

ALL IS VANITY

   



  Ok, I was going to write more about the universal effects of aging on us, but it will have to wait.

     I have something exciting to share with you.

     I found a blog by (surely!) an old person and if he is who I think he is, he is a Grandpa!
     Here is how it happened.  I awakened in the mid-winter of night, deeply discouraged, feeling What's the use?? 
     Throwing off my  CPAP, and even before I could walk as though I don't have a balance problem, I staggered into the Family Room, switched on the light, prayed for help and grabbed my Bible.
     I knew I needed help.
     My Bible opened to Ecclesiastes.  Ecclesiastes is a bit hard to find, usually, as it is a small book, only 12 short chapters, tucked into the Old Testament.
     I remember Ecclesiastes from the song "Turn, Turn, Turn" sung by the Byrds...and Judy Collins.....and quite a few singers during the Viet Nam War.  You know, "It's not too late for peace".
    Beautiful and haunting and popular.
    Of course I didn't read much more of Ecclesiastes back then, or if I did, it didn't speak to me much, except that one verse about remembering thy Creator in the days of thy youth.  I do remember that.
     But now, having read Ecclesiastes in the middle of the night while despairing, I think it was written by an old person!!  It is a Grandpa's Blog.  I kid you not.  
     I'm so glad I found it.
     "The day of death is better than the day of one's birth."   No young person could have written that!  "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity."  No young person would have written that!"
     Thousands of years ago an old man got up (probably at night) to blog about What's the use?   
     The blogger concludes:  "Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."
     There is so much in his blog of feelings we experience on this terrain of the twilight zone of aging.  Read it and weep. And find comfort.


Thank you for dropping by,
Riverwatch