11 September 2025

‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ Do you believe it?  The preacher, Ecclesiastes, says so. What has the world to offer which is of permanent value? People aspire to wealth but to what purpose? Does it bring any happiness. No! It brings a greater desire to attain more.

Once I conducted a wedding at which the flowers cost  £17,000 but they had no fragrance!  A young man and his fiancé, who were  unknown to me but belonged to a family I knew, were able to upgrade their  stay in a hotel to a suite costing £3,000 a night.

What more do you get than the beauty of a vase of home grown sweet-smelling roses  and a refreshing night’s sleep in a comfortable bed?  You hardy need money to enjoy these pleasures and they come without the desire to have more for they are enough in themselves.

‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ says the preacher, Ecclesiastes. And we are bound to agree. For not only does his austere perspective expose the true value of what we treasure but he reminds us that our life is not only bound by birth but also by death. And then what?

Will we continue to benefit from our riches? Will our reputation continue to be polished? Who will remember us when we are gone? Very few and certainly no more than the fourth generation, if we are very lucky. And what does it matter anyway?

We may follow the mantra  ‘one day at a time’ but we also keep our eye on the possibility that this may be our last. We live not in this moment but in eternity. For we have here no abiding city. We look for the city which is to come. This constitutes our vision, sharpens our perspective and keeps us travelling on to the eternal God.