Glorious Meaning of All Meanings!

Last winter, while reading through the book of Ecclesiastes, I became somewhat obsessed with the thought that, in Jesus, everything we read there has already found its inverse in Him. In other words, if all unredeemed human life is a "vanity of vanities," the life of Jesus has already made it possible for us to live a "glorious meaning of all meanings" sort of life in Himself. In essence, He has already rewritten Solomon's words by the perfect living of His divine human life. And is inviting us into the same.

So I decided to extrapolate what that might mean, using Ecclesiastes' words—but in their opposite, their inverse.

For these next twelve posts, I'll be offering a "chapter" each week showing how Jesus has rewired Ecclesiastes into our New Covenant reality. I hope this brings into focus how glorious is His Way, His Kingdom!

1 The words of a follower of Jesus, the Son of God, the King of Kings.
 
Glorious meaning of all meanings, says this disciple,
      glorious meaning of all meanings! All is now worthwhile.
What do men and women gain by following Jesus
      in the day by day of life?
Lives made new, generational experience of the Kingdom,
      the world of creation seeing “sons of God coming into their own.”
The Son has given His life! And risen!
      He has ascended back to the place from which He came--Glory!
His Spirit now flows into our lives
   and travels over the face of the earth in us;
through and through us flows the Holy Spirit,
      making all things new.
Streams of His joy pour down inside us,
      overflowing and then flowing over:
into the lives of others around us,
      that they may see Him.
His Way is rich with life—life to the full;
      human lips cannot compass it;
our eyes are full of the wonder of His glory,
      our ears with the sound of His voice.
“Even greater things” will He do through us,
      and what has been in Him is what we shall do:
      all is new and real under the aegis of the Son.
Are there impossible things of which it can be said,
      “No, this is clearly impossible”?
He has said we can do these things;
      we have heard His promise.
We remember how He did it in His day;
      we remember, yes—yet remembrance
of earlier things is not His Way:
      for He still speaks.
 
     I, by His own choosing, have come to be a disciple of this Jesus from Nazareth. And I have given my heart and mind to seeking and searching out His wisdom, His Way, right in the midst of the ways of the world around us. It is a wondrous business that He has given to His brothers and sisters to be focused upon. We have seen some of what He has done with a life, and look! all in Him is glory and joy and peace: a daily experience of encounter and following after Him.
 
           The way is narrow and straight,
              and we shall lack for nothing upon it.
 
     I rejoice in my heart now, “I know Jesus: He is the Way, the truth, the life: He surpasses all who have ever lived: He lives in my heart right now, bringing with Him all wisdom and knowledge.” And I have given my heart and mind to knowing Him—and also my awareness to all that is not Him. All else that is, is not: it is like chaff in the wind. 
 
          But knowing Jesus is knowing Life Himself:
             he who comes to know Jesus has attained to Life.