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OLOMON wrote, "Who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow? For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?" These verses remind me of James' description of our lives as "a vapor which quickly vanishes" (James 4:14).
Perhaps some of us will feel the impact of an illustration more if it is hyperbolic. Solomon excelled in hyperbole. Here he gives an extreme example of how grand a human could become, and still have no more impact on this world than the shadow of a vulture passing over a field. Maybe a few rodents scurry momentarily into hiding, but otherwise, what effect has the passing shade produced? ...certainly nothing lasting. Anyway, Solomon here describes a man who has everything he could want and more. He is rich and famous. He has 100 children. He lives for 2000 years; outliving everyone he loves. Yet by comparison, he is nothing beside God. So, Solomon concluded that this extraordinary man (by our standards) is truly no better off than a child that is miscarried (Ecclesiastes 6:3-5).
If our lives here are really so trivial, then perhaps this world isn't the destination after all? Maybe, we were created for another kind of life; one that transcends everything that we see around us here on this earth? Our lives here may be comparable to shadows and vapors, but what about our existence in the afterlife? The Apostle Paul wrote that "...our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
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