Of Moths & Meaning: We Live by Creed

Reading a poem is like studying a tiny vein of a moth wing.
Writing a poem is like drawing the tiny veins of a moth wing.

 Moth

Moth,
 .                  .      ^         .
pep pered pizz i cat o wing-
poem
.            .           .    
flit ter ing in woods
like
                .         .
ma ni la pa per or a
mini canescent canvas,
   .
blend ing,
   .
sooth ing
   ^   ^
star tling-
      .       .  
....hov'r ing 'twixt
 .
in ner world  
   .
out er
                         by heidicook

Of Moths & Meaning: We Live by Creed

     We are all poets in that we seek meaning in our world, most of us like to find meaning in what we experience as true, beautiful, and good.  Yet, we find ourselves sometimes faced with the question-"What is true? What is good?" Ironically, we can be unaware that our beliefs can be vague and even contradictory.  But if our beliefs are so central to us, perhaps our creeds are important enough to examine as closely as a poet sees a moth's wing. How can we know if our creed is true? How does it determine what is good? Does our creed account for the reality of humanity's obvious plight and our own imperfection? Can our beliefs save us?
   There is a universal belief in love and beauty, but how does our creed account for the darkness? What about the parts of us that cannot love perfectly even as we so desire to do?  Is sentiment and positive or wishful thinking enough to lead us through our most important task to discover our meaning in life? We can wax eloquent about the virtues of love and loving others, we can do kind deeds and various acts of justice even, but what about all our failures in love, can we stuff them into a box or wish them away?  Even if we make self-improvements along the way, as we head for old age, what must become of all the evil and ill-will and negligence and hatred that each person is responsible for whose ripple effects go to the ends of the earth and through the vast expanse of time?  Our actions, words, thoughts and deeds have results that cannot be undone; how can eternal justice be made and the world salvaged?
    There are many worldviews that do not give an adequate account of humanity's plight. All worldviews & religions, save one, promote a buckling down of the human self or will to obtain something that the individual has lost.  They are built on the stones of the self.  They may require us to be good, but they really never address what one can do with the bad already done- how can eternal justice be brought about? Or in the metaphor used by Jesus, "How can clean water flow from a spoiled spring?" Karma?  An eternity of being reborn until one finally gets life right? And what is our definition of a life rightly lived, especially, when in a pluralistic society, humans cannot agree without an authority to appeal to, what is a life perfectly lived.  
   Let's say humans could come up with one code of ethic that makes up a perfect human being.  It would be humanity's agreed upon "moral religion." It is not a stretch to say that a moral religion could only succeed in condemning us one by one, because a moral law or code can only point to how we fail to live up to it in its entirety: "Be good" one is commanded, but without the full ability to do so. Both Buddhism and Hinduism believe that if you follow the right path, you will reach a state of innocence, bliss or freedom. Both Islam and Judaism teach that you can be righteous by way of your good deeds. Islam specifically likens salvation and blessing to a scale, in which your good deeds are "heavier" and weigh more than your bad deeds, so you hope. Humanistic worldviews believe salvation, though they will not use that word, lies in how much they have cared for others, relying simply on themselves. In each worldview we hear the same basic message: "be good," "follow the right path, and be well on your way to wholeness of life." But what have these creeds simply not learned about our own weak and inconsistent human nature?
   If we look at the Christian creed via the encounters that Jesus had with real people, we see how the love of God is poured out to us through his willingness to confront us with reality and truth, while also offering us hope. He addresses the very issue of human endeavor with a Jewish expert in the Law of Moses, who wanted to know what he could do to inherit eternal life.  Impressed by Jesus' teaching, this man asked Jesus what he needed to do to be saved, after all, he must have been attempting to keep God's law to a very exemplary standard, the moral code given by God himself to the Jews to which they agreed upon and which Jesus Himself kept. Jesus asked him to answer the question, for an expert in the Law of Moses should know what God required. The expert gave the satisfactory answer-to love God with all that we are, and our neighbor as ourself. By telling the expert that he answered correctly and adding, "if you do this, indeed, you will live," Jesus knew that the man would be troubled by this answer in his heart, for he would know how many times that he failed to do it perfectly. Jesus pointed out to him, in a moth-like, camouflaged way, one has to read between the lines or study the "veins," that no matter how many good things this man did, there would always be one thing he still lacked, he wouldn't be able to go far enough.  Just as in Luke 18, a rich ruler asked Jesus the same question: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus tells him to follow God's commands but still one thing more, "Sell everything you have and follow me." Of course, his heart sank, as must ours when we read and understand the righteous requirements of the law of God. 
  Ironically, this is the good news that the Bible brings, that the Lord of Life taught-no one can go far enough in their attempt to follow God's moral code! Why is this good news? Because it is true, and we needed to know. We can't make it on our own. Eternal life is not ours for the earning. Only Jesus could.  That's why Jesus was in an indirect way calling this man to see himself as the wounded man on the road, the law is what wounded him and "beat him up," leaving him sorely bruised. The priest could not save him, the Levite could not bind up his wounds-they were types and shadows of the ultimate Priest and the holiest Levite, paving the way for the Savior. Instead, something very foreign to him, God himself, walking in the flesh of a man, would die in his place giving all that he was for him, thereby, binding up his wounds, paying for his "hospital stay"-giving exactly what was needed: The life of the God-man in exchange for this rich, self-righteous Jew.  Jesus is the Good Samaritan.  Why a Samaritan? Because the Jews hated Samaritans and the Jews hated Jesus by and large, and today, we still want a "do it ourself" religion, just like the law expert and the rich man. Though many say that they love or admire Jesus, they do not know Him, and, by rejecting His words or by remaining ignorant of them, they hate him just as the Jews of His day. Jesus' love is both hidden and evident in this encounter, for His words say to this man who desired eternal life: Accept these words and live. Accept Jesus' life in exchange for yours and have life abundant, both now and forever. Instead of focusing on the law as self-preservation, go and have mercy on others, going even beyond the law, just as God has shown you such unheard of mercy. In Christ, we no longer need the law for self-preservation, Jesus preserves us, we only need the law in order to love. For we can be freed from the eternal penalty of our imperfection, by which the law had us shackled. 
  A "do it ourself" religion, whether a pure or mixed breed, maintains our own desire to be self-made perfect by creating a law that we ourselves approve; we can conveniently weed out any rough edges that might make us feel uncomfortable. We will, without realizing it, have made the measure of truth rest upon the self. It is a way for us to submit to a law as far as we want to go and ultimately justify ourselves.  We justify the actions we want to take, and we justify ourselves further by applauding that we are not like one people group or another. We may consider that we are more free than someone else, or less mindless than others. We walk elatedly on our accepted enlightened path. Ironically, we think that we have left "creeds" and "doctrines" behind, unaware that we have merely replaced existing creeds with our own.  As Wayne Dyer claimed, "I hate historical creeds, I despise already made doctrines," while in the next breath proclaiming: "Listen to me closely, and believe this with all your heart...."
   Our self-made creed seems foolproof and all-encompassing at times, but we don't know what to do when our own enlightened spirits experience a recurring sourness. All authority rests on the self alone, the fatal and flawed self who could not ultimately conquer in this life. Self-made creeds have no higher authority to which one may appeal, except maybe the State which must adopt its own creed, and which we all know is filled with flawed humanity. The State at its best can sometimes bring temporal justice, when it seeks what is true and carries out what is true, but it cannot bring universal, ageless justice, though it has often promised to do so. But worst of all, we fail to find even one untarnished hero. For Christians, even John the Baptist in all his asceticism, declared that he was unworthy to tie the sandals of Christ! For our most prized heroes in this life had woeful flaws-whether it be Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Mother Teresa, insert the name of your favorite human rights advocate, Nobel prize winner, guru, or saint; all have succumbed to human sin and to the grave. 
  Nevertheless we feel enlightened by our chosen gurus.The Bible in contrast to human creeds, claims to be from God, inspired by His Holy Spirit, miraculously having a consistent message about the fallen state of humanity, {consistent not by one author, but by 44 authors} the inability of the self to right the world or even our own small corner of the world (think of Noah after the Flood), the coming of Jesus as Savior (one who succumbs neither to sin nor the grave), the unchanging character of God, a message of hope for disparaged sinners, a message truly foreign to human pride and effort. A message given to us, for us, but not of our own making.
    The Christian creed of Christ's life and death is the only unique answer to the plight of humanity. It rights all wrongs when Christ brings the fullness of His Kingdom, and it makes spoiled and tarnished humans perfect in Christ, thereby, giving us rest. That is why Christians refer to Jesus as their ultimate Sabbath, they can rest in Him in what He has accomplished, even as they seek to live by His Spirit day by day, becoming more and more like Him. So, although they are called to labor for the sake of Christ, of becoming like Him, they also rest in Him. 
   Not only was Christ's life and death testified about, written about and illustrated thousands of years before it happened, but also, it was said to have atoned for the sins of the world, that is, paid their price, so that all those oppressed by sin, which was each person (even the best person you can think of) and who reached out in faith, could find freedom. They could find new life and be promised a new and eternal world made right. The Bible teaches us through many miracle accounts that to obtain our salvation and be finally healed, we must reach out and touch Jesus, we must humbly ask and receive, believing that it is His person and His power that saves. Jesus Himself expressed His desire that His miracles serve as an illustration for His plan for salvation. And that our salvation depends not on our own merit or creeds, but on Himself, the Christ, made known to us through God's Word.
   Christ's death defines both God's love & His justice.  As both God and man, his death was a price that was infinite so that the world will one day be totally new, without blemish; the effects of sin have been and will be destroyed only because of Christ's death and resurrection.  Christ's perfect obedience to God's revealed Word and to death serves as justice for the very first sin of Adam, to the very last sin. His love for humanity defines our love for humanity; it was concerned foremost for the welfare of humanity's peace with God, humans cannot have peace between each other until there is first peace with God. Christ was concerned about making amends for our sin condition.  Without acceptance of Christ's amends for our sin, we do not have peace with God.  In fact, scripture shows that we in our sin-nature are enemies of God "for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  After he was raised victorious, the New Testament speaks of Christ offering His nature to us, His perfect nature becomes ours as a gift from God obtained through faith.  
   We have a desire for justice in our society today, we dream of a world free from great calamities and we offer mercy in the form of money and labor, but we still can't manage to live consistently justly in our own backyards. We easily and naturally harbor resentments against others and withhold love and welcome to those with whom we are uncomfortable. We hold peace rallies in our communities all the while harboring violence in our own hearts toward one person or group, or just on our "bad" days. Because of our tarnishing despite our desires for good, Christ performed the supreme act of justice & love. He was tempted by Satan to win fame and notoriety by focusing on the temporary physical acts of justice, "be king now, end world hunger, heal all the sick" -be a visible hero to all people now-but if Christ had taken the throne in his earthly life, in his not yet glorified body, for temporal relief only, atonement for sin whose effects would have been eternal would not have been met.  Nor would he have won eternal life for all the saints of God.  He had to follow His Father's plan.  
   If a man stood up on the world podium today and announced a plan to end world hunger and bring all armies to a stand still, and could do it-he would immediately be lauded as a hero. He would be thought to be one who "saved the world."  Christ, being God, could have done this, but he chose the path of His Father in Heaven.  For this action which accomplishes His Father's will, He is not lauded as a hero by the world, which is why the Bible says the "cornerstone" of the world has been rejected!
    What God does takes eyes of faith to see-we face many dangers, humans around the world endure many miseries, and those of us who have much have miseries that would often suck the life out of us. The world and its discontent spirits seek to lead humanity away from the one creed of heaven into the darkness of the creeds of man, which humanity perceives as doctrines as light, so that man may do what pleases himself and not what pleases God. We do our best to help others when we are moved to do so, but our ultimate goal is to please ourselves most often. But none of these has the final word.  Paul said that even in these present evil circumstances "whoever has Christ is God's freed man or woman." Christ came to loose our spiritual chains, so that after death, no matter how much we have suffered we will have eternal life with him.  These present evil days have an end! And we get closer to that end everyday.  
  The Lord will put everything right, as a true hero should, but first He wants to conquer our hearts through faith, He wants to form us and shape us into His image and show us His Kingdom both present and yet still future. He wants us to act justly and to love mercy, not because He has promised that we can bring utopia through our actions-either to our own world or to someone else's world-because He desires us to be like Himself and to bear witness to Himself and to the original intent of creation. These things we do as God desires- with a new heart provided by accepting His Son who died in our place and declaring this good cornerstone news to all, sometimes making justice and mercy take on forms that the world does not understand or receive. He is making a people who trust not in their own strength and ability and who learn of a kingdom whose building they did not design and whose fullness they cannot yet see. The Lord wants us to be shaped by His creed faithfully testified in Scripture, faithfully fulfilled by Christ.

Confronted by the God-Creed

  Do we find truth or does Truth find us? God's Word testifies that humans stumble in the darkness, and that a great light has penetrated our world and shines among us. We do not according to God's Word stumble into the truth, rather, through God's Word, a testimony patiently revealed to numerous writers over thousands of years, we are confronted by the truth by the holy God whose power spoke the world into existence, whose design sustains the world, whose character was revealed to lost people by the Son Jesus.  We are confronted and asked to respond in our hearts and lives to the revealed truth of God.  We neither stumble into the truth, nor create it. We are to seek after it hungrily once the Spirit has drawn us, to know it intimately, and submit to it humbly, even as the Son did. We do not make our own creed, but accept a Living creed that makes us.   
   There is a creed that is greater than the self; it is the creed of the living Lord found in God's Word; it is faithful to examining our heart and enlightening our minds, but only as God's Spirit directs; God's Word always works through the ministry of His Holy Spirit.  Do you want wisdom? Do you want understanding?  Ask the Spirit of the Living God to give you wisdom from His Word. The miracle He wants you to know here is that this request will never go unanswered.  
   Repentance is the road off of our spiritual high tower that was paved with the stones of insufficient creeds and paved with tarnished human efforts at perfection.  These stones were beautiful, well-crafted, alluring, often edifying and at the very least, entertaining. The disciples pointed out to Jesus the stones of the temple. While they marveled at their beauty and majesty, Jesus tells them that in short time, not one of these stones would be left upon the other! He literally "rained on their parade," like Eeyore responding to Tigger, the disciples went from a feeling of pride and grandiosity to "Gee, what did Jesus eat for lunch today?" In opposing fashion elsewhere Jesus states about His Word, that not one "jot or tittle" of it would pass away. And it illustrates all creeds where Christ and Christ's way is not the cornerstone, but instead, human efforts, which will fail. The self without Christ fails. He is the stone that the builders rejected. He is the stone that we reject. Although humanity naturally seeks to fulfill himself in his own way, without atonement, without admission of guilt and repentance to the Father and His son and His Spirit, there is hope. Although, we seek to live as though we are not beggars in need of crumbs from the Master's table, there is a creed that states-  We become princes and princesses when we accept the crumbs from our Master's table, for the crumbs of the Master are surely a feast! When we seek Jesus out and request, "Heal me, Lord," we are indeed invited to sit at the table with Him. Turn in your heart to the wellspring of life, to the Living Creed or Word as John's gospel testifies, and out of your heart springs of living water will flow. Turn to the Living Creed who did not fail on our behalf.
   
   

Bugs & the Venture of Eternity

Bugs & the Venture of Eternity
In "To a Moth Seen in Winter"

                                     

   Bugs are fun! Is it any wonder that one of my favorite poets has several poems or reflections on moths?  (I say this with a bit of hesitation, as yes, I have so often been inspired by Frost poetry, even have written a few songs on the piano dedicated to his verse, however, it would seem that he may not have been a person whom I would have admired, also, in this phase of my life I find that I cannot give voice to some of the more hopeless tones with which some poems are overlay-ed.)  What I enjoy when I read Frost's To a Moth Seen in Winter, is encountering the moth in the snow.... it's a breathless moment, it's so exciting! Insects- are they not a source of joy & endless fascination? It's so momentous to see this magical silvery creature that I wonder if I can follow Frost into his melancholic reverie, but I do, because he is such a master of words, after all, it's difficult not to follow Frost where he will take you, whether into a yellow wood, a snowy evening, or into pensive reflection "twixt wood and wood."   If I see a moth or any insect for that matter, I too am bound to stop what I am doing and watch with fascination, delight, and at least a hint of melancholic reverie...So to prepare us

for Frost..                  .

Here's a little of us enjoying nature from our home in Wisconsin.  It's a bit buggy out here by the lake.  Our friends are ....

Katydids come into our house and make high shrilled clicking noises. Can you spy her on the leaf?

katydids, 

                                          
grasshoppers, 

walking sticks,



Mating sticks. Do Walking Sticks kiss? Note how the tail of one looks like a long needled pine. Wait, females do not need males to reproduce, they can reproduce by parthenogenesis...hmmm.

  bumblebees, and  

This one flew at my nose as I was videotaping it!

praying mantises  

This one was just sitting on our car.

and well, wasps, especially recently~ everyday as winter approaches we have about 8 cold and dying wasps come into our house, looking for warmth: guess we need to go nest hunting & destroying, they are very slow, drunken-like, docile and lost~moral of the story, when you see a wasp nest on you house-never leave it-or you'll have trouble in the fall and in the spring when they wake up! Back to Frost's moth....

"bright- black-eyed silvery creature, brushed with brown..."

To a Moth Seen in Winter

Robert Frost

There's first a gloveless hand warm from my pocket,
A perch and resting place 'twixt wood and wood,
Bright-black-eyed silvery creature, brushed with brown,
The wings not folded in repose, but spread.
(Who would you be, I wonder, by those marks
If I had moths to friend as I have flowers?)
And now pray tell what lured you with false hope
To make the venture of eternity
And seek the love of kind in winter time?
But stay and hear me out. I surely think
You make a labor of flight for one so airy,
Spending yourself too much in self-support.
Nor will you find love either nor love you.
And what I pity in you is something human,
The old incurable untimeliness,
Only begetter of all ills that are.
But go. You are right. My pity cannot help.
Go till you wet your pinions and are quenched.
You must be made more simply wise than I
To know the hand I stretch impulsively
Across the gulf of well nigh everything
May reach to you, but cannot touch your fate.
I cannot touch your life, much less can save,
Who am tasked to save my own a little while.

     Beautiful and melancholy. Indeed, Frost is too melancholy for me, at least that's how I seem to feel with all of my favorite Frost poems, terrifyingly melancholy and so...heavy with the tragic side of human existence. One commentator labeled Frost "the bearer of bad news for civilization."  And in this, perhaps he provides an intellectual honesty different from his transcendentalist contemporaries. Despite his intellectually honest melancholy, he draws us in with nature's beauty, this snow-shaking beauty like the the irresistible heavy dust-fall of snow from a giant, long-needled pine, or a "black-eyed silvery creature, brushed with brown," that we must marvel at nature with him.  Like a stereogram, now you see it, now you don't, there is childlike marvel at nature {wondering which kind of friend this moth might be} coupled with a heavy adult reverie {you will never truly be loved, nor will you love}: but this moth, irresistible form of natural wonder just happened upon, gives delight despite the wistfulness of the observer, like a newborn infant, who knows not the effect of pure delight and joy she gives. The moth is a remnant of the pre-wistful garden of Eden.
   But Frost cannot live in the Garden of Eden anymore than you or I can.  Oh, Frost, here you spend less than half of your poem in your childlike delight over a moth on your hand!  Yet, I could give you the benefit of the doubt and see perhaps a bit of childlike innocence in your reverie, thinking it possible that you were enjoying your reverie and your anthropomorphic musings with childish delight. Ah, but there can be an earth-spell delight in melancholy, so I can assume that the delight even in choosing the right word goes all the way down to the bottom of the poem.  It was all part of the earth-spell the moth had put you under and the word-smith came out to play, in the garden of the knowledge of good and evil.  In this garden we became barred from lifting ourselves out of this burdensome wistful knowledge that we cannot change our fate.  In this garden we had no choice but to hide from the One that loved us into being and to accept our fate; no choice but to lament something good that is missed, something that could have been better, if only.  But, if Frost had been able to accept through a childlike faith, even way back in the first appearance of this heavy knowledge in the Genesis story came a promise that through Christ the head of evil would be crushed. The whole story is the story that includes ills & tragedies, but that ultimately has a hero who wins the battle & destroys evil~and gives us God's vision for what love was meant to be, even giving us His perfect love in Christ, that our sufferings in the face of imperfect human love might not have the final voice. Thus, a vision for eternity with God restored.
    The poem is but a vein of the moth wing, not the whole, I can't see it all here in this poem. To stop here would be like stopping by the Snow Witch's castle in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and seeing all those creatures frozen stone cold: indeed, Frost seems frozen in this poem, able to enjoy a beautiful moment in nature, but unable to find true love despite his best desires and efforts.  If we stop here, trying to find true & unconditional love in nature, or even in ourselves or another, we will find ourselves coming up short.  Indeed, Frost speaks truth. This truth is confirmed in God's word.  Man on His own cannot experience unconditional love on his "venture of eternity." That is why we can find ourselves spending so much effort on "self-support."  Frost, much like scripture, gives us this bad news; here Frost betrays the transcendentalists- there are things in nature and in humanity that are not inherently good. We cannot find the support that we need, and we end up spending so much time in "self-support" trying to "save ourselves."  It is only through God's inspired story that we see that Frost's incurable "winter" is melting just like Aslan's breath set free the frozen statues; to see the fate of God's people reborn and to find unconditional love to us and for us in the expression of Jesus.  
     Because of God's gift of undconditional love, bugs can take us out of our adult heaviness and into a world full of childlike possibility and fascination, into suspended moments detached from responsibility, full of the delight of being and the intrigue & strangeness of design.  Through Christ, God's favor can be upon us just as on a little insect, who goes about a pretty simple business of living, despite our "incurable untimeliness,\only begetter of all ills that are," and being a little-no- a lot repetitive.  For the Lord has reached out His hand "across the gulf of well, nigh, everything,"  and touched our fate, yes, even redeemed it, in a "timely" manner, for He is not the begetter of evils, but the begetter of salvation! Such that we need not try to save ourselves. Lord, thank you that after you spoke the word that brought forth bug creatures, you then spoke the written words of life to lost souls that lead us ultimately to your final Word of Jesus.  Your final word of Jesus won for us on the cross what nature could not, and what we could not win for ourselves, that we might be taken out of self-conscious reverie and given light moments of being because of the Word of Life who became hope in the midst of tragedy. And finally, bugs remind me of One who said that His burden ultimately is light and not heavy, because as it was said: "our earthly troubles" are light and momentary, because they are passing away, for all the children of God. 
   

A Prince, A Princess & A Pea

A Prince, A Princess & A Pea

   Are you discontent?  If not, you should be!  At least that's the moral of Hans Christian Anderson's The Princess & the Pea. If Anderson isn't making fun of nobility in this story, which is an option, the innocent little green pea represents something much bigger-discontentment; the complaining of the princess is lauded as heroism, it brings her riches and a noble title.  The meaning of the story is like a mysterious shadow that follows along in the corners of the soul. . .like the search for one's true identity.  We want to be recognized; we want the nobility in us to be seen; we want to recognize ourselves & experience contentment.  How many moments  have you felt like the heroine of this story, unsheltered caught by way of a storm, rain-soaked, unadorned,  like royalty disguised: the shining royal self you cannot seem to find, yet, you are hiding a royal identity? If only for the wisdom of one who can present the true test of noble character!  The queen in this story deserves an applause all her own, one who is wise and perceptive enough to know the TRUE test of nobility deep within. Perhaps our discontentment was meant to lead us to truth, and ultimately to finding our true self. It certainly doesn't make anyone feel like a hero -discontentment, complaining, a feeling of meaninglessness; however, maybe it is the gauntlet through which we must pass to find our identity and true wealth.
      A very famous king's discontentment led him to a search for wisdom in a surprisingly complementary biblical story to the Princess & the Pea - Solomon of Ecclesiastes.  Solomon  was standing atop twenty of the worlds' most luxurious mattresses: the worlds' best of food and palaces, entertainment & gardens, the worlds' most intelligent orators of religion and philosophies, the best that nations had to offer.  And he had nobility; he was presumably the most noble king who had ever lived.  He stood on top of all these mattresses and felt the pea.  That tiny pea of human mortality and inconsistency, the cause of his anguish and suffering.  The world's religions and philosophies seemed impressive, yet-  whether a man or woman did good or evil, the same fate awaited them all-death.
     Solomon's ultimate question was "How can I find contentment in what I do?" Death and inconsistent results cast a shadow of discontentment and meaningless to our days & years.  For the Princess, for Solomon, and for us, the pea is an anguishing presence (remember, the Princess wasn't just irritated, she was black and blue all over from having to sleep on a pea!) that can be felt even in the midst of stacked physical and spiritual luxury. No matter how much comfort one stacks up for themselves, (and no matter how many positive thoughts one comforts themselves with) somewhere deep inside the knowledge that nothing lasts or that nothing is perfect makes one uncomfortable; the knowledge that even if I am not presently suffering, somewhere, someone is.  Many of us would agree that even if our bellies are always well-fed and our shoes new and our homes warm through the night, our moments of contentment are few and fleeting. There is always a pea.  If it is not an immediate medical concern, the looming death of a loved one, a divorce, financial struggles, an unwanted move, the death of a dream, an inconsistent friend, the list goes on... then the pea will still be the suffering of others & our own hidden sufferings & yearnings.  For Solomon the sun would rise & fall for millenia, but people, the crown of creation, had their breath for a mere 70 years; even if life were perfect (his would have been close by worldly definitions) there is still the quick approach of the grave and this inconsistency everywhere in the world ("There is a time to love and a time to hate", "there is a time for war, and a time for peace").
      What sets Solomon's story apart from many searches for wisdom comes to us in the famous account in II Chronicles 1 - Solomon asked the Lord for wisdom.    The Lord was pleased with this and gave it to him: it was not because Solomon was so philosophically clever that he came to his famous last chapter in Ecclasiastes, but because the Lord gave him this understanding.  Ecclesiastes is written as an exploration of human wisdom, it echos the story of Adam in the Garden when the Lord had brought before Adam all the creatures of creation and none were found suitable as a companion for Adam, the Lord had demonstrated to Adam his need.  In Ecclesiastes, Solomon parades lines of observable human wisdom for us which remain unsatisfying as an end in themselves and presents us with our need for God.  In Ecclesiastes Solomon draws the mattresses for us and then inserts before our very eyes the pea.  If among the mattresses of the human experience we feel this pea of meaninglessness, Solomon then offers us the wealth that the queen in the fairytale offered the girl-hope for meaning and a new identity. The Lord allowed Solomon to see the folly in the human experience apart from God and the restorative hope: "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come....before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring..." that is the end of our life  "...and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Ecc. 12:1-7). Solomon ends with these words: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."   
     Wisdom and wealth lie in finding a new identity in the Lord through faith, in the face of inconsistency and death.  Sometimes a wicked man will prosper and a righteous man will suffer. Life can't make sense because the best of us humans have been inconsistent, yet, as Solomon discovered, God himself offers us His consistence through His story to us, words that lead us ultimately to Christ who made the provision for us to know His salvation, and give us that abundant life for which we were seeking; that we need no longer fear the "silver cord severed" because the severing only brings us to where God dwells through Christ.  Solomon realized that it would take an act of humility before one's awesome maker, an act of reorienting one's whole self toward God, who alone is worthy of this response, for it is to Him that we shall return. Solomon who was the "prince atop the mattresses" then becomes the storyteller,  "casting his bread upon the waters" that others may find life, in this stormy world! (Ecc. 11:1) Indeed, without Christ, life is futile; Ecclesiastes prepares us to meet Christ, the one who "calms the storm," that the apparent meaninglessness with which we are confronted with ultimately creates.  Christ came then to keep God's commandments perfectly and in humility performed the whole duty of man for which God then gave Him the authority to give us His life that we might have it "abundantly."

     The Princess' discontentment is heroic.  She was not lulled to sleep by the present comfort of 20 mattresses: she was able to grasp that her present moment of comfort did not contain the whole of all the meaning of life, in fact, it was even hiding it.   We all have our own 20 mattresses appearing in many forms, it could be our love for nature, our esoteric elation with life, our fascinating hobbies, our optimism, our pessimism, various philosophies that do not give an adequate account for the human condition, it can be our marriage, or our families, our important careers, and any of the fabulous things that we own and do: anything that brings us temporary comfort from the storms of life can also become that which hides life's meaning from us.  There is not even one of them that can ultimately satisfy us. Without the discovery of life's inherent meaninglessness, without the discovery of the pea, we remain poor & common.  Full of common human wisdom, perhaps, but, without the thing that satisfies.
    Solomon's search for meaning caused him to seek wisdom from God.  From the vantage point of having everything that the world could offer,  instead of being content with his "on top of the world" position, he reflected on the whole of life and asked God for wisdom: it is no small thing to ask God for wisdom, the Lord is moved when we do; the Lord allowed him to see way down deep beyond the present moment of comfort and meaninglessness to our need for God.  The whole of wisdom couldn't be found in a collection of Proverbs, "Lazy hands bring poverty, but hard-working hands bring riches" which  amount to observations about life, or in various quotes from the Book of Human Wisdom, like "There is nothing better for people to do, than to eat, drink, and find satisfaction in their work,"  or even in the simple delight in the good things in life: Solomon's experience as an art patron, sponsor of musicians, master garden designer, astute philosopher, host extraordinaire to kings & queens, connoisseur of countless wealthy hobbies, perfecter of palace decor, great love-maker, etc. and God's wisdom, allowed him to write that there are many good things but that nothing is good in and of itself.  Goodness could only ultimately be reached through an act of faith, casting ourselves upon the Everlasting One who ultimately restores the meaning that we were searching for through Christ, who was a provision for us and our inability to keep the whole law of God, and as the Way to eternal life.

    May God lead us, through the pea of discontent, where He led Solomon, seeking the Lord for wisdom, every day and every hour.  The Bible tells us that life is primarily a spiritual battle, our eyes are quick to be darkened.  It is never too often to ask God to give us His wisdom.  May the pea lead us to God's message written from Heaven,  the love of His Words, and the belief in the mysterious salvation through Christ offered to those who once walked in darkness but of whom the Bible now calls the children of light. May discontentment with this life lead you to find everyday your contentment in Christ.