Morning Devotion - Eccl 11

Read Ecclesiastes 11

This brief chapter examines the way of wisdom in a life where there is much that we do not know. As we move toward the conclusion of the book in the next chapter, Qoheleth seems to be directing his thoughts toward a younger man called "my son" in the closing verses of Ecclesiastes. It is one of the challenges of youth that this fact is not frequently considered until we have faced more years of life. What is the wise way for us to live our lives in the face of our overwhelming ignorance of the important details of God's unfolding providence?

The chapter begins with an instruction to be generous. What seems like a meaningless casting away of your bread upon the waters today has a way of coming back to your own aid in a future day that you cannot yet see. God has made you like a cloud full of rain today (a good thing for a dry land below). Do what a decent rain cloud should do. Give forth life-giving water so that the ground that needs your resources can prosper and be fruitful. You do not know when the storm will come that will bring down the tree of your life. May it be when you are about the work of living generously. Be up and about the work of generosity as a matter of personal responsibility. See it as a field of opportunity that must be actively tended. You do not know whether you will prosper more from the business of generosity or from the planting and gathering of your own wheat and your corn. Perhaps both will go well.

Enjoy the light while you can still see. The pleasures of it are fleeting, but to be enjoyed. But remember, young man, that God will bring you into judgment. Do not seek trouble or suffering, but do not foolishly imagine that the pleasures will never end that God gives you every day here below. These early years of your life are quickly gone, and you do not know the day of your death, just as you do not know the day when you might need the generosity of a friend or neighbor who you once had the opportunity to help.

We think that we know everything and that we have our destiny in our own hands. Our lives begin in the womb of our mothers. Secretly the Lord causes the spirit of life to come to the tiniest of human beings. Can you explain the union of the spirit and the flesh in this youngest one among men? You say, "I do not know how that happens." You are right about that, and you also do not know the secret providences of God that will unfold in His future works that will make up the challenges and opportunities of your life.

Blessed be God who gives life and who knows all His wonderful decrees. Blessed be God who knows the need of His beloved children even before we are born. Blessed be our generous God who took action on our behalf and sent His Son to us as the Bread from Heaven. Blessed be the One who knew that He was walking toward the day of His death, who could have called upon legions of angels to slay his rude enemies in a moment of deserved destruction, but who instead faced death for our sakes that we might live securely in His presence forever.

Cast your bread upon the water, today. You do not know if this day will be your last in this fleeting world. Thanks be to God for the assurance that we have of eternal blessing in heaven because of the incomparable generosity of the One who saved us.