View from Above, Click to enlarge.
There’s a picture painted in Ecclesiastes that we never hear preached, but it might be a good day for it now.
In a small and vulnerable city lived a man who, though wise, was poor and unnoticed. A powerful king came against the city and built a siegeworks to starve them out. They were as good as dead. Then the previously unknown man offered something that (though it’s not told how) changed everything.*
That’s my summary. The original writer wraps it up with: “Wisdom is better than strength.”
He also makes another point: “After it was all done, the poor man was forgotten and his wisdom was no longer heeded.
It’s one of the ironies of life.
Irony: When things go in an opposite way than expected. Life has so much of it, I sometimes wonder if it’s more the rule than the exception. (If that were possible.)
How often it is that no credit is given to the one it is due.
Or sometimes it’s worse: Rather than credit there’s blame. You’ve heard it said: “No good deed will go unpunished.” It’s another irony, and we’ve seen it happen.
It happened at the central moment of history!
Too often the wise are despised. It’s the popular who are popular. Wisdom is handy in a pinch. But until then, and after then, “Let’s party.”
Sounds sort of depressing if it wasn’t so familiar.
It’s right there in Ecclesiastes: We tend to forget the One to whom we owe our lives . . . the One that, though poor, was wise, and provided a solution to save us.
Let’s remember.
Happy Easter.
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*Ecc. 9:13-18
Feel free to share with others.
Our Lives Together
Its About Life
8:45 am
LOVE this painting Hyatt….this is the one we saw when we met you that we really wanted…
8:51 am
Thanks Hyatt. Happy Easter!!
9:18 am
It’s so true. I think of the Scripture: He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not.
Gospel of John
If the Creator of the world didn’t get a second glance of recognition, maybe I shouldn’t get so upset if I don’t either.
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A Day in the Life
I send my emails from a candy coffin eight feet underground where the battery of my laptop lasts forever.
The butterscotch shroud I’m wrapped in is getting harder, but it keeps me warm.
This week I’ve attempt to connect with several people who failed to respond back.
Perhaps they too write in their own candy coffins.
Relationships are often buried in the bittersweet busyness of life.
Speaking of coffins, I passed by a casket store
and spotted a Gauge Steel beauty with wood inserts for forty percent off
The sign over the coffin read–All Sales Final.
Well, yeah…
The dead don’t get refunds.
And even the living don’t always get the credit they deserve.
12:12 pm
Love the picture.
Happy Easter .
9:31 pm
I look forward so miuch to your twice weekly musings. Thank you cousin, and Easter Eassings to you and yours.
3:15 pm
Thank you Hyatt for sharing your wonderful paintings along with your so beautiful words of life and wisdom. I try to read each one and try to figure out how you get such dimensional layers of color in your paintings and in your phrases! Blessings to you and Anne from Colorado Springs, Halleluia, what a Saviour! Sue
6:19 am
Thanks to you and the Lord that I discovered your web site today. I’ve long been amazed by “The Last Supper” at JARRS and Weddington UMC and given away many bookmarks. Your website has enriched my faith.
My brother and wife live in Carmel Valley; he is on the Big Sur board of some sort. I hope they will visit your gallery; I know I will next time I visit them. Also, I hope to educate newer church members about your work and the beautiful painting they walk under as they enter church.
May God continue to bless you both. Thanks for sharing.
Our son, Todd Jones, and wife Esther, Wycliffe members, serve in PoHang, South Korea. All of our grandchildren also live in PoHang.