Ecclesiastes 1:3-7

3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? 

    4 Generations come and generations go,

        but the earth remains forever. 

    5 The sun rises and the sun sets,

        and hurries back to where it rises. 

    6 The wind blows to the south

        and turns to the north;

     round and round it goes,

        ever returning on its course. 

    7 All streams flow into the sea,

        yet the sea is never full.

     To the place the streams come from,

        there they return again. (NIV)

Steve Martin once joked that life would be completely pointless if it weren't for his "lucky astrology mood watch." Even in humor, man reaches for something beyond this world. Without something beyond, the world is a grim place of pain, loss and the experiences we can appreciate before death inevitably takes us. I have officiated at more than a hundred funerals, I have attended many more, and one day, the funeral will be my own--but what comes after that it what I'm really looking forward to. I don't dread the casket; I'm looking forward to the place Jesus has ready for me in heaven.

What makes the difference in funerals is what the family believes will happen next. When they have faith in their savior, the kind of faith that takes God at his word (like the royal official in John 4:50), then the family can dry their tears, hear the saving message of forgiveness and the resurrection, and be comforted. When faith isn't there; when a family is bound by possessions and the desperate need to have a "celebration of life" for the deceased, then there will be a focus on what a great person this was, on what great things this person did, or on how much they will be missed. And those tears will dry, too--but only in bitterness, doubt and fear.

Solomon does us a favor by getting right into the gritty emptiness of a life that doesn't look to God. The hopeless turn of the clock and the wild cycle of the world's weather brings no comfort without the Spirit of God bringing the message of forgiveness and peace. Where there is faith, then a "celebration of life," if a family still insists on it, can really take place. We celebrate life because God is the one who gives it, just as God gives eternal life, too.