Well Rounded Truths

Recently, I was reawakened to the practicality and greatness of two books of the Bible: Ecclesiastes and Job. No matter what your notions of the existence of God or whatever are, they address real topics of life that we all face sometime in our lives.

Ecclesiastes asks the question: What's the point of it all? A very worthy question. After all, we are each fleeting flashes of creation in a vast cosmos with little to no hope of being remembered more than one generation out. But wait! There is a God who Cares. It's an especially poignant book because it was written by a man who had literally done it all and life still felt hollow until he came to his conclusion about what life is about.

Job clearly presents the problem of evil, with relevant, commonly asked questions throughout about why suffering exists and what can be done to end it. Then, towards the end of the book, God answers Job's questions. Hasn't everyone wanted the answer to the why's of life? Well, there it is in Job. God puts the universe into perspective for Job, citing the created order primarily, emphasizing His care for us as His creation despite evil in the world.

I like both books a lot because they emphasize the contradiction of our worthy puniness. Absent the supernatural, the books are excellent examples of the existential crisis, which is reality, but only part of the reality. While we are teenier beings on a teeny planet, we are also loved by an infinite God who made Himself manifest in history through Christ. It's the complete package.