Breath Returns To God

Who Gave It

Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain; in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low; when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

God has a wise purpose in letting us grow old and weak. God planned the strength and beauty of youth to be physical. But the strength and beauty of age is spiritual. We gradually lose the strength and beauty to age, and we can then focus on the spiritual. Because of that we will be eager to leave the temporary, deteriorating part of us and be truly homesick for our eternal home. It we stayed young and strong and beautiful, we might never want to leave this earth.

When we are young, happily occupied with our relationships and activities, we may not long for our celestial Home. But as time passes, we are afflicted with dim vision and hearing difficulties, no longer able to relish food, or to sleep well.

The promise of heaven is our eternal hope.

Our Daily Bread – June 10, 2009