“As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.”
This one struck me because that is one of the great mysteries of life, isn’t it? Humans have souls, spirit, but what is it? How does it relate to our body? Our brains? How does it develop within us? God breathed directly into Adam and Eve. How does it work for the rest of us?
The whole point of Ecclesiastes seems to be “don’t stress about it too much” or rather “get comfortable with mystery.” At least, I think that’s what he means when he tells us wisdom and the pursuit of wisdom is just as vain as anything else. There are some things for which we will never have answers. There are some things that will always be too complex for us to comprehend. Either because God is working on a time frame that is beyond our limited lives or because he is working with far too many factors for us to piece together.
“The end of the matter: all as has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
And, as we know from Christ himself, the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love your neighbor. Everything else hangs on those. Everything. They will know us by our love.
Do they? Do we love each other in a way that defies the nature of the world? Can you accept that there are mysteries so deep that perhaps how we approach them says more about us than the matter at hand?
It’s all vanity anyway. It will all come to an end. We will all stand before God and be judged by every deed and every secret thing. So love God. Love your neighbor. Do your work well, and enjoy life.