The human experience only makes sense when you include in your search for purpose the One Who is not “under the sun.” Ecclesiastes reminds us, especially in our materialistic and sensually driven time, that the world is senseless when we eliminate God from the equation. Temporal life can only offer pseudo-replacements that leave us empty as a result. Search for meaning in knowledge and learning, for the sake of learning, and you will find you know much about stuff that does not matter eternally. Search for meaning in pleasure and living, for the sake of pleasure and living, and you will find that no amount of pleasurable company, good food, or joyous occasions, can satisfy you. All of it is emptiness, an empty search, there is no permanence, and it is fleeting. Search for meaning in work, throw yourself into saving and earning, and stockpiling great amounts of wealth, and in the end, you will still die and leave it all behind. Where is the meaning, the purpose, the lasting satisfaction, or the comfort in any of those searches? However, when you include God in the discussion, and you incorporate the spiritual existence, that which appears so senseless takes on new meaning. 

You can find solace in the permanence of a life lived for God, and an eternity spent with God. Life only makes sense when you start with God. You can enjoy the blessings God gives to you, the knowledge and learning, the pleasures and joys of life, the work and labors of one’s hands, all can be enjoyed in their proper context as blessings from God. Such a worldview gives occasion to further praise God for His goodness. 

This whole point is only amplified by the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God from the dead. Paul powerfully argues the same point as Solomon, that life is meaningless and empty “if Christ has not been raised” (I Cor. 15:17), that without Christ’s resurrection, “we are of all people most to be pitted” (I Cor. 15:19). Yet we can truly take refuge in His resurrection and His ascension to glory, that through Him we find meaning, purpose, and a steadfast hope that endures. We find our meaning in the person of Jesus Christ, and we can find confidence through His resurrection.