Human beings are reflective creatures. He is the only one of God's creations that has intellect and can contemplate His existence in this world. Contemplating the meaning of what he does and stepping in the purpose that He has set. For the believer, these reflective and contemplative efforts are always closely related to his relationship with the Creator.

This time we will embark on a journey to examine the counsels of God through the book of Ecclesiastes. It is a fascinating book that stands between the wisdom tradition and philosophical reflection on life. The name of the book itself refers to verse 1 where there is a reference to the authorship of “the words of Ecclesiastes” who is seen as a wise man who conducts/collects a series of reflections on life. Ecclesiastes opens his reflections by saying, “sheer vanity, says Ecclesiastes, sheer vanity, all is vanity (v.2). ”  There are two meanings of the word vanity that Ecclesiastes uses; firstly, everything that exists and happens in the world is temporary. It will rise and fall, come and go. Therefore, everything is full of absurdity in the sense of the gap between what is expected and what is experienced by humans.

No matter how hard we try to take full control of our lives, there are still far more things that we cannot control. Everything happens in cycles that keep repeating themselves. If we are not good at assessing and reflecting on the situation, we will be trapped in the pursuit of desires that never satisfy humans (v.8).

The preacher's reflection brings us into a fundamental question of what is most meaningful in our lives. We often get caught up in things that we think are meaningful and define the basis of our existence. For example, power, wealth, connections, and position. But these are all temporary things. The journey to find what is truly important and meaningful is what makes us reflective human beings. So that in that search, we can meet God who is the basis of the existence of the entire universe.