It is one thing to say that, but it is often hard to let that truth grip us. For that, we need the help of imagination. We need the fact to intersect with our lives and thinking. I appreciate Zack Eswine's help here (From Recovering Eden: The gospel according to Ecclesiastes, pg. 76-77)
When we were young, we dream of a house to buy, a yard to create with, pieces of furniture to possess, and a bank account from which to use for our gain. When we are old, a time comes to sell everything that once represented our dreams of a future. We have to move to an assisted living facility, or in with our kids while someone else uses the drapes we left on the windows we used to wash and enjoy.
A young woman fills a hope chest with treasures over which she dreams, and intends to bring into her future with her man. An elderly woman has long since buried her lovely man and now has to sell or give her hope chest away.
"As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand." (Eccl. 5:15)
The One greater than Solomon [ie. Jesus] takes up this truth and preaches it. There are treasures, so called, that last for a moment but rust and moth eat away. Other treasures exist of a kind that rust and moth cannot touch. The former make us smile, but they cannot keep the frowns of the world from taking place. A treasure of a different kind is needed that can outlast this life under the sun (Matt. 6:19-20).
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Even though there are these pleasures in the world that are ours for use, they cannot satisfy what only God can.
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