Hevel. Have you heard this word before? It’s a Hebrew word used extensively in Ecclesiastes. 38 times in fact. I mentioned earlier this week that I love the book of Ecclesiastes, and you’ll see a little more of my love for it today. This word, hevel, sets the whole tone of the book, in my opinion. It’s a word with multiple meanings that describes life so perfectly that I can dwell on it for hours. In English it means vapor or breath or smoke. It is also translated as meaningless or vanity. It’s an abstract concept, but the author of Ecclesiastes is trying to say that everything, absolutely everything, is like smoke or a cloud. It appears solid, but when touched, your hand slips right through it. It seems real, but it is really just an illusion. All we do, the reasons we do it, and life itself is as meaningless, temporary, and fleeting as a puff of smoke.

On the surface, this can be an incredibly depressing way to view life, but that’s what makes it a great parallel for our lives. When we keep our distance, stay on the surface, and don’t go deep in our relationships with people, it can look good. It can look like we really have it all together. Like we are on solid ground with a life to be envied. A facade. The truth is that without depth, no one knows what’s behind the smoke. What is the reality of relationships with our friends and family? Who are we really and what is defining us as person? What is our identity?

It is only in depth that we can break through the smoke - get a glimpse inside the cloud. When we pursue relationships in such a way that embraces the hevel, knowingly walking through the smoke-like barriers of discomfort and unsettling feelings to ask the hard questions with the people around us, we are no longer fooled. The reality that we are all broken people in a broken world becomes apparent, but now it is no longer overwhelming and lonely. We are no longer isolated in the cloud. We are walking with others in the midst of all of our problems, sharing our brokenness, and doing life together. So the idea being that what could be depressing, hevel actually brings freedom and joy and beauty.

When we apply this depth seeking to our relationship with God, it increases the experiences of freedom, joy, and beauty exponentially along with countless others. I think A.W. Tozer alludes to this in this excerpt from The Pursuit of God:

A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.

In a way, I think Tozer is saying that God Himself is shielded from us by all the hevel of this sinful, fallen world. In the garden, Adam and Eve walked in both His spiritual presence and with His manifested presence, but since then, the enormity of sin has blown in a cloud of smoke veiling Him from us. It is only when we dare to have the faith, no matter how little, to reckon that the cloud of sin is not the reality we desire, but what lies behind it, that eternal world comes alive to us. We desire the spiritual kingdom around us. We desire the deep relationship with God. We desire His presence.

So what’s the point? Exactly. Sorry - a little Ecclesiastes joke there. The point is that there is no point. Our lives are fleeting. Our lives are the vapor and the more we dwell on the fact that the vapor has any importance or longevity, the more we are missing out on the relationships and experiences that we desire and God desires for us. God has no need for us, but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t want us, love us, and cherish our relationship with Him. Let’s live with knowledge of the hevel, but not be fooled by it.

Father - I pray that you would fill my lungs with your breath, and as I breathe it out, it blows away the veil of smoke fooling my earthly eyes from seeing anything but your kingdom. I long to come alive to you and your eternal world. Strengthen me to go deeper than the surface. Challenge me to test what appears solid to me in my relationships in pursuit of deeper and more meaningful ones with you at the center. In Jesus’ Name - Amen