The earth is the most insensitive thing of all. It doesn’t care a thing for those who live upon it. It carries on as if nothing has happened in the middle of life’s greatest pains and losses. This is what Solomon means in Ecclesiastes 1:4-7. He writes, “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits, the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.” The wind doesn’t care about you or me at all! The rivers don’t care about you or me either. I wonder if the writer of the old song “Ole’ Man River” had this in mind when he wrote about the Mississippi that “must know somethin’ but don’t say nothin. He just keeps rolling along while “you and me sweat and strain, body all achin’ and racked with pain.” The rivers don’t care about those who plant potatoes; they are soon forgotten.” I suppose the writer felt like Soloman when he closes his song, “I get weary and sick of tryin’, I’m tired of livin’, but I’m scared of dyin’ but ol’ man river, he just keeps rolling along.
When Skeeter Davis lost her first love, she lamented the insensitive nature of the world around her. Nothing in the great creation cared about her loss at all. She sings, “Why does the sun go on shining? Why does the sea rush to shore? Why do the birds go on singing? Why do the stars glow above? I wake up in the morning and I wonder Why everything’s the same as it was. I can’t understand, no, I can’t understand how life goes on the way it does.” She wants to know why nothing cares about her pain and suffering!
The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes leads us to but one obvious conclusion regarding all of life: “It’s vanity of vanities.” It’s all smoke and mirrors. It’s not until he introduces God into his narrative later in the book that we see there is meaning and purpose in life. The rivers don’t care. The winds don’t care. Nothing in the created order cares. But the creator cares. The one who made the whole universe: the stars, the winds, the seas, and everything else in the world does care about you and me. John 3:16 is the most famous verse in the Bible for a reason. It stands in stark contrast to the impersonal world in which we live. “God so loved the world (the world of people!) that he sent His only son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Yes, a generation is born only to die in this world under the sun, but God’s great love for us delivers us from the futility and insensitivity of this earth. Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrated His love for us in this, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Christ was crucified at the hands of an insensitive world so that we could have life, eternal life. The universe couldn’t care less about you! But God loves you with an everlasting love.