Beware spiritual amnesia

In my last post I mentioned Ecclesiastes 12:1 briefly. Lets' dig into that one a little deeper...

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, ... (Ecclesiastes 12:1-2; ESV)

As we get older our senses are typically diminished. We often find we have decreased ability to see and hear. We might get 'a touch of diabetes' and lose some sensation in our legs. Thomas Hanna founded a school of therapy (Hanna Somatics) based on the idea that we progressively lose our ability to sense the position of our joints and the state of tension in our muscles and that this 'sensorimotor amnesia' leads to many other somatic dysfunctions.

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But it is not just our physical senses. We can become hardened with age and lose out sense of innocence, our sense of wonder. We can lose our ability to blush. We might sleep less and more lightly, losing some our ability to dream. In short, we can lose our sense of spirituality as we age.

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The author of Ecclesiastes is warning us about this phenomenon. Remember your Creator while you can still see and hear and feel good enough to see the magnificence of creation give witness to its' Creator (as in Rom 1:19-20, Psa 19:1). If we do not exercise our sense of spiritual wonder when we are young then we may be left unable to exercise it later (after the sun and the moon and the stars are darkened...).

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That gives a neat perspective to the rest of the Ecclesiastes 12 passage:

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut--when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low-- they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets-- before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7)