- Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. -
Our verse today talks about what happens after we die. Solomon makes the argument like he has made many times throughout the book that this state removes us from the hope of this life.
Today, I want to look to something different. Legacy and Heaven, the two things that remain after we are gone.
When we die, what remains behind? Is it the things we’ve done?
Maybe, if we are genuinely lucky. But think about how many people have been forgotten. Even if you are one the best people in your career today, that’s barely going to matter in 100 years.
In fact, most high performers would probably be shocked at how well the company runs after they leave it. Sure, there are some ups and downs, but it’s very rarely that the doors close for good.
So, what does remain? This is very abstract but is in fact your life. What in the world do I mean by that?
Think about all the people you interact with, peers, kids, and seniors. Are you not constantly engaged in an evaluation game with them all?
I sure hope my life turns out better than that. I wouldn’t have done it that way. How did he get to be so successful. I wish I had done that when I was a kid.
What’s the idea? We are constantly, in big ways and small, massaging each other’s life, morality, and choices in ways we do not fully comprehend.
In a sense, this emerging process is our legacy. The more conscious and noble we make our actions within it, the more we can improve the lives of others around us, in both big and small ways.
So that is our legacy, but what awaits us in heaven?
The Bible is actually short on details here, and I haven’t been put on the email list. I do want to highlight something about God’s nature and Eden that may give us insight.
First, what does God lack? Limitation. God perhaps created us because without creatures like us there was nothing to do, nothing to accomplish.
Yes, we are a total pain in the neck, but with us, we bring purpose and meaning to the universe. We however do not bring a key piece to that puzzle.
Being. That is an action of God. In a strange sense, our meaning and purpose is rudderless without this being.
In this way, we can see the idealized state of being involves both limited and unlimited creatures existing in harmony.
Now let’s turn to Eden. That garden was one of Paradise. It contained everything we needed to survive and none of the bad stuff of this world.
Strangely enough, that included work.
Remember Adam had a job. It was to name all the animals within the garden. God even made him a help mate to assist him in this labor.
What is the idea here? Paradise is a place where our limitation is still on display! We are needy on God for the environment to exist and we still have something to do within it!
So what might heaven be like?
Perhaps, it is the place we work within where all our needs are met.
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