Listen up, little ones
Listen for the words all or everything.
Reading
Ecclesiastes 1:12–18—Is Everything Futile?
Keys for kids
- Figuring out life is hard.
- Meaning is found in God alone.
- God lets us enjoy life.
Questions
- What is life about?
- What might we think life is about?
- Where do we find joy?
Notes
What are you making of your life? What meaning are you finding? And what are you finding meaning in? The preacher seems to find little to no meaning. I’ve looked at life from both sides now…I really don’t know life at all, singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell wrote in 1967. Do you know life?
Gibson notes that in this world, those who follow Jesus Christ never find a permanent home. We find peace with God through Christ, and there is rest for the weary and burdened. But the gospel does not lead us into a settled life of contented ease. This has always been true of God’s family.
Further, Gibson states, the Preacher will argue that wisdom, pleasure, work, and possessions are very often the bubbles we live in to insulate ourselves from reality. And his needle, the sharp point he uses to burst the bubbles, is death. … Far from being something that makes life in the present completely pointless, future death is a light God shines on the present to change it. Death can radically enable us to enjoy life. By relativizing all that we do in our days under the sun, death can change us from people who want to control life for gain into people who find deep joy in receiving life as a gift.
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 3b, 119s
Prayer
- Thank God for giving you joy in life as his gift.
- Pray for the reading and preaching of God’s word tomorrow.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.