vanity
Ecclesiastes is one of the most sobering books of the Bible, and a book for our time especially. The author was a man who had it all, and yet came to the conclusion at the end of his life that all was “meaningless.” All the fame, the sensual pleasure, the money, the success – all of it came to nothing. Why? That great leveler of all people, death, awaits the great and the small. Apart from looking above to the eternal God for hope, life is vanity. Thankfully, that God is good, and He is a giver of exactly what we need, grace and mercy.