Crooked

I was drawn to Ecclesiastes today and began reading it from the beginning. When I reached 1:13ff, I was encouraged.

Ecclesiastes 1:13-15
13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

Sounds dismal and gloomy but I was encouraged because I remembered an old, old song, what I sang was from a cantata which we had sung many Christmases ago, maybe more than 20 years ago. Even though I cannot remember the title or the author, the song of Isaiah 40:3-5/Luke 3:4-6 still rings very clear in my mind.

Isaiah 40:3-5
3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Luke 3:4-6
4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways,
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

Through the Qoheleth’s experience in life, he tells us that the crooked cannot be made straight, but in Jesus, every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the roughway shall be made smooth. And we beheld His glory. The glory of the only begotten of the Father.

Maeghan
Picture by Peter Ripma