A Reflection on Human Significance

Imagine walking on a fresh beach. The sort of beach where the tide comes up high and then goes down and the beach is beautifully smooth. Not a footprint on it. You stroll along the shore, leaving your footprints in the sand, thinking you’ve made your mark. But as the sun rises and sets, someone else arrives, oblivious to your presence, leaving their own prints behind. And so the cycle continues, with each passerby believing they’ve left something unique, only to be erased by the next.

This notion isn’t new. The words of Solomon remind us: “What has been, it is what will be, and what has been done, it is what will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun,” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Wars, life, death—they persist, indifferent to the passage of days.

Even in our personal journeys, we find recurrence. We stumble upon a passage in the Bible, feeling like we’ve discovered something profound, only to realize it was noted centuries ago by a scholar long forgotten. Our achievements, no matter how grand, are but fleeting whispers in the winds of time. Generations pass, memories fade, and soon, we are but forgotten echoes of the past.

“Is there anything of which one might say, “See this, it is new”? It has already existed for ages Which were before us .There is no remembrance of the earlier things, And of the later things as well, which will occur, There will be no remembrance of them Among those who will come later still,” (Ecclesiastes 1:10-11).

Philosophers ponder the same questions, grappling with the inevitability of oblivion. “I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive,” says Bertrand Russell.

It’s a sentiment echoed in the rise of atheism, as the world questions the meaning of existence in the face of suffering and despair.

Yet, our conscience whispers of significance, hinting at a purpose beyond the day to day futility. For if there is no God, as the atheists proclaim, then perhaps this viewpoint was right—life truly is a meaningless cycle.

But there is more. Beyond the repetitions and recurrences, there lies a greater truth waiting to be discovered. Our existence, fleeting though it may be, is but a chapter in a larger narrative, written by the hand of a true God.

In the end, it’s only the fact of God that makes life significant. God gives meaning to our fleeting footprints in the sands of time.