From the moment we are born, we shuffle towards death.
Sometimes infants die, and we count it a tragedy, thinking of all the lost potential. Would this child have found the cure for cancer? Would this one have been generous to the poor? We think of the broken hearts of the bereaving family, the empty cradle, the clothes that won’t be worn.
We never think — this one would have grown up to be an alcoholic, a criminal, a predator. But those potentials are also there.
With older children, the tragedy can be even deeper, perhaps?
The parents know the child. They are attached. An infant death brings deep pain, but when a child is older and the smile and the laughter and the tears and the sleepless nights and the small victories… all of this become part of the soul of the family.
Yet if we survive all that, we are still on the same route as always.
In most modern countries it is no longer considered remarkable for young adults or even the middle aged to survive and continue their shuffle towards death.
And at some point people start talking about the “good death”. They refer to older people when they say this. Someone elderly who dies in their sleep and how remarkably good that is.
No sudden deaths by stroke or accident or murder or suicide.
Those are considered tragic but… the end is the same whether you die in your bed or in a falling plane.
So what is the meaning of life?
We shuffle towards death. Every person, every creature, every plant shuffles the same way. Even the mighty redwood will eventually come to an end, as will our Sun.
While we are alive, we can enjoy life’s pleasures. We can eat good food, engage in interesting activities, love each other and explore, grow, learn. Yet, is it all ultimately meaningless, us putting sign posts on the increasingly dusty pathway we shuffle along towards a final destination that seems unknowable?
This is why the book of Ecclesiastes exists in the Bible. It answers questions because God adds meaning.
I believe God exists, but if He didn’t, wouldn’t we have to invent Him?
Ecclesiastes comes from the Greek word ekklēsiastḗs, which means “participant in an assembly of citizens”. This reminds us that we are all shuffling together, not along, but part of a community. We can choose to make it a community of God, which adds meaning to the walk, I believe.
Reading the book, one finds many grim passages. But there is also comfort.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end”.
One can find nihilism and darkness in the march of life. Or one can walk towards glory and joy.
The choice is ours.
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This post was previously published on Shefali O’Hara’s blog.
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“From the moment we are born, we shuffle towards death… We shuffle towards death. Every person, every creature, every plant shuffles the same way. Even the mighty redwood will eventually come to an end, as will our Sun.”
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…I think that was the verse from my fortieth birthday card…