📖 Ecclesiastes 4:12
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken (12).
The Preacher firmly declares that a life lived in solitude is a “futile life” (8).
He states that if one’s life lacks a person to offer comfort when one is weeping amidst difficult circumstances (1), it would be better to die (2); indeed, he suggests that it would have been better never to have been born at all than to face such a death (3). Even for a person who lives solely to fulfill their own life plans—without children or siblings to care for—and who manages their personal well-being and assets with meticulous discipline, if that life is lived in isolation, the Preacher pronounces it a “futile existence” (8).
This is because, in God’s eyes, better results are achieved when two people are together rather than just one (9). What is remarkable is that these results are not merely harvested at the very end of one’s life, but are gained throughout the very process of walking the path of life. It involves watching the person beside you stumble and realizing, in that moment, that you too are capable of stumbling; it involves slowing your own pace to reach out and help that fallen person back to their feet (10).
If one experiences such realizations during the journey of life, that life is deemed a good life.
Jesus is the One who lived a life of greater goodness than anyone else. He was constantly on the move. As He walked, He called His disciples; as He walked, He healed the sick; as He walked, He taught; and as He walked, He proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. He is the One who lifted up His disciples when they stumbled along the way, and who promised to remain with them—and us—to the very end.
Today, the path we walk is a path along which Jesus Christ takes us by the hand and leads us—a path leading us toward our Heavenly Father. May we have the heart to slow our own pace just a little, so that we may look back and care for those who are walking this path alongside us. Please do not forget the promise that hands joined together—even if they number not just two, but three—can never be broken apart. May we live out this day holding that promise close in our hearts.
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God, thank You for seeking us out—us who build kingdoms of our own and remain confined within them—and for inviting us to walk the good path together with You.
Remembering the grace with which You reached out Your hand to us, grant that I, too, may reach out to those living in emptiness and walk that path alongside them.
I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
🎼 I, Who Believe in the Lord, Live for Others
