Can that be the sun???

Pastor Carol Grace ♦ October 31, 2009 ♦ Leave a comment

It is the last day of October and we finally see the sun again.  I, for one, was beginning to go into withdrawal.  Ecclesiastes 1:5 says:  The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. Another year is almost over, and the sun seems to be hurrying faster than ever before.  But Ecclesiastes 1:9 assures us: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun.

I recall years ago being on a youth trip where we went to some state park for a picnic.  Sorry I can’t be more specific, but some of the details of my life are like a picture that was on a wall for years and years–when removed, you can no longer see the picture but you can see a distinct impression of where the picture was.  Such with memories–some are distinct, but more often they are mere impressions.

But I digress.  We were at a state park and we had climbed to the top of a hill where there was an outcropping of rocks.  In the exuberance of youth and my total naivete I said we were probably the first people to ever see this particular grouping of rocks.  As we circled the phenomenon, we saw evidence that we were not the first–not even close.  The far side of the rock was littered with graffiti–who takes a Sharpie to a park?

Have you read Ecclesiastes lately?  Some of the most beautiful language in the Bible is found in that book, yet the book begins by saying everything is meaningless, that we don’t remember the people gone before us and we will not be remembered by those who follow us.  I beg to differ.  I remember my family, the ones to whom God gave me, every day of my existence.  I remember historical figures like Amelia Earheart, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson.  I remember our spiritual leaders, like Charles and John Wesley, Francis Asbury, Charles Barclay, and William Osborne–indeed, I seek wisdom from them even today.

Ecclesiastes 3 says there is a time for everything under heaven.  Our world plunges deeper into sin and complacency each year and yet we Christians say a little prayer on Sunday for our leaders and for the state of the world and think we have done our part.  If there was ever a time for Christians to take the lead in government, in morality, in teaching wisdom and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is now.  Stand up, speak up, do it now, while the sun still shines.  Do it now, while there is still a chance that we can make a difference.  Do it now.