Hilarious or an addition of insult to injury? I’m not sure, but I’m glad this age spot (which looks like an old woman) is on my leg and not the one on my face!
Maybe you noticed that I didn’t blog last week. Hmm. Here’s why: sometimes I come to the humbling notion that I have nothing of value to say. Often that concept is accompanied by a long look in the mirror in horror at the grey in my hair, the pruney wrinkles around my mouth, and that darned age spot on my left cheek. What starts as brushing my teeth and combing my hair some mornings becomes a full blown indictment that I’m aging and on my way out and irrelevant. There are other catalysts to my occasional bouts of no-confidence: a slight from someone I care about, reading the news, being tired. Whatever the reason, sometimes the voice inside me turns from normal excitement about life to questioning my own worth.
Okay – change the subject, sort of. I don’t think that I’ve never read the book of Ecclesiastes before in its entirety. Sure, I know the words to “Turn, Turn, Turn” but that’s probably it. In the past few weeks as part of my devotions, I have been reading one chapter a day from this not so popular book of the Bible. I’ve thought most of the time it was pretty depressing, with all the ‘meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless’ theme. Maybe that’s added to my overall funk and feeling I myself am somewhat passé and beyond my expiration date.
But today. Today I heard something different. Today I read chapter 11. Let’s see, what made it resonate with me? It all started with verse 6. “Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.” At first, I blew through that verse and continued. (Don’t I often crochet or do some little hand craft project while I watch TV at night?) It wasn’t until I got to verse 10 that a light dawned… “So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body for youth and vigor are meaningless.”
What? Oh, now I see! Verse 6 can be read literally or it can be taken as a metaphor. (Maybe my master’s in English has some worth. 😊) We are told to do our work in the morning, and then find something else to do in the evening with the hope that at least one of those efforts will do well. I did that! I’m doing that! I’ve been a mom and a teacher and I worked hard at both. Now that its evening, my kids are gone and I’m retired but I feel this irresistible urge to write. Hey, who knows which endeavor will be the most successful? Verse ten reassures me that youth, and smooth skin, and a hip that doesn’t ache are not requisites for being productive and useful. Both are, in fact, meaningless when you look at the job and its outcome instead of the collagen in the skin of the doer. Yay! Hope! Encouragement!
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