While teaching at the Yale Divinity School, Henry Nouwen met and befriended a young student named Fred Bateman, a secular Jew who, when challenged to read the Hebrew Bible, said, “It doesn’t speak to me. It is a strange faraway world.” 

 

“Well,” said Nouwen, “read at least the Book of Ecclesiastes, the one that opens with the words: ‘Vanity of vanities. … All is vanity.’” Fred returned the next day and said, “I read it. I never realized that there was a place in the Bible for a skeptic like me. That’s very reassuring!”

 

Are you a skeptic? Do you wonder if life has any purpose or meaning? Consider reading the inspired musings of a wise king named Solomon found in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes.

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“Every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

Romans 8:28 MSG