For the last week, I have had verses from a book of the scriptures rattling around in my head--so I might as well talk about it.  It is the book of Ecclesiastes.  The writer calls himself the Preacher.  And if you have ever read this short book, it is summary of all parts of a person's life.  He begins by saying that everything is "vanity."  Verses 1:3-6 say, "What does it profit a man of all his labor...one generation passes away, another generation comes...the sun rises and the sun goes down...the wind goes south and turns around to the north..."  In other words, nothing changes.  He sounds like he is depressed.  Maybe he is.  But the writer makes some profound statements in twelve chapters.

He concludes those twelve chapters like this:  "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:  Fear God, and keep his commandments.  For this is the whole duty of man.  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."  The book covers the stages of a person's life, and ends by reminding us that life is short, and we will answer to God for what we have done with our years.  It is worth reading.

But the passage that kept running through my mind all last week comes from the third chapter.  It begins like this:  "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."

I  realize that I am in the last season of life.  And I am learning what this season is all about.  You can't fully understand things that you have never experienced.  You can know "about" them, you can read about them.  But the emotions of experience make the season real, and you gain insight that you never had before.  That said, I am learning what it is like in the season of "growing old."  I thank God that it is my body that is failing me and not my mind.  I watched my mom go through the last season of her life--with Alzheimer's.  It was cruel.  They say it is the disease that kills the family.  And I can attest to the truth of that.  My mom completely missed her last season--in a muddled fog.

Chapter 3 begins: "A time to be born, and a time to die..."  The writer is telling us that everything that comes to us over the span of our lives is simply the nature of life.  My time to be born was March 26, 1938 in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  God appointed that time for me.  He appointed a time for you to be born as well.  And our days are numbered.  This book is a warning to us to use our life wisely.  To use our days fruitfully.  "Fear God, keep his commandments.  This is the entire duty of man."