Oceans Never Fill

I began this blog years ago. Since its beginning I’ve gone from being the mother of one child to four. A bigger household has not been the only change in these thirteen something years. When I began blogging I gave my blog its title, Oceans Never Fill. I was inspired by the first chapter of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is a mournful book, with eyes wide to the seeming futility of life, the many sorrows, the lamentable failures of mankind, how far things can feel from God. However, beneath all these realities, Solomon shows us something else. Life it seems is not so futile after all, but this discovery isn’t made in grand palaces, or high places, it is among the ordinary lowly things in life.

I’ve always believed writing is largely about seeing and time. To write well we must pay attention. We must see things for what they are, we must notice people and moments. And we must take time. We must take the time to think, to articulate our ideas, to listen to the thoughts of others. Nothing has helped me learn these two habits more effectively and with more reward than motherhood. So it seems only right that as I’ve had more children these things have only become more important to me. I believe my children have made me a better writer. Motherhood, it seems, has been the greatest school for writing.

So while streams run into an ocean that will never fill, and the sun rises and sets; and all we do has no purpose in itself; we have hope because in Christ all things are renewed and redeemed for his purpose.
As my days are filled with thousands of little tasks and encounters that make it move far too quickly, I hope to take Solomon’s words as a warning not to waste my life, not to allow it to be meaningless nor vain, but filled with purpose, with all things: all attitudes; intentions; actions and words submitted to Christ for his glory.
On my own I am like Solomon, captivated by vanities; but thankfully, I am not left there, instead I have been given grace by my God to embrace life with him at the center.
This blog is simply an expression of that grace given to me. I have always sought to sift through the meaningless and cling to that which is valuable, full of truth and beautiful; and I hope to share what I find with you all.

Ecclesiastes 1
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem.
Vanity of vanities, says
the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is
vanity.
What does man gain by
all the toil
at which he toils under
the sun?
A generation goes, and
a generation comes,
but the earth remains
forever.
The sun rises, and the
sun goes down,
and hastens to the
place where it rises.
The wind blows to the
south
and goes around to the
north;
around and around goes
the wind
and on its circuits the
wind returns.
All streams run to the
sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the
streams flow,
there they flow again.
All things are full of
weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied
with seeing,
nor the ear filled with
hearing
What has been is what
will be,
and what has been
done, is what will be
done,
and there is nothing
new under the sun.
Is there a thing of
which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance of former
things,
nor will there be any
remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who
come after.