Graves Into Gardens
One chilly Thursday afternoon in the winter of 2002, my father and I were having our weekly lunch at Ninfa’s restaurant. As we enjoyed the green sauce and chips, he said he noticed me limping a bit as I walked from my car to the entrance, and asked how my knee was doing. A few months prior to that lunch, I underwent my third knee surgery in three years from injuries sustained while playing basketball. I replied that I was feeling a bit sore, but the joy of playing my favorite sport made the pain totally worth it. He looked at me with compassion and said, “I understand, but one day you won't feel the same way about basketball.”
Like Solomon in his later years, my father had learned the truth of Ecclesiastes 5:10, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money.” Or in my case, “He who loves basketball will not be satisfied with basketball.” Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with money or basketball, but when we turn good things into ultimate things, we eventually and inevitably experience the emptiness of idolatry. When my dad first said those words to me, I told him there would never be a time when I didn’t want to play basketball. Yet, now in my mid-40s, I find myself shooting alone in the driveway about twice a year.
In his song, Graves Into Gardens, Brandon Lake writes:
I searched the world but it couldn't fill me
Man's empty praise and treasures that fade are never enough
Though Ecclesiastes may feel like a bit of a downer to some, it actually serves as a tutor to lead us to Christ. The created order was designed not as an end in itself, but rather to point us to our Creator. The unsatisfying quality of even the best things in life was put in place specifically to draw us to the only One who can truly satisfy our souls. I’m not as old as my knees feel, but in my four-plus decades I’ve found that only the gospel feels as fresh today as the first time I truly heard it preached.
Like the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:4-8, Brandon Lake testifies to the unrivaled value of knowing Jesus and experiencing the transformative power of His good news:
Then You came along and put me back together
And every desire is now satisfied Here in Your love
Oh, there's nothing better than You
There's nothing better than You
Lord, there's nothing, nothing is better than You
Like the repetitious refrain of Psalm 136, “His love endures forever,” it is good for us to remind ourselves daily that nothing compares to the greatness of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord. He turns mourning to dancing, shame into glory and graves into gardens.
He turns a despairing sense of meaninglessness into a life full of meaning. Let’s join together in testifying to the world that nothing, nothing is better than Jesus!
Grace and peace,
Phil
