Our lesson in Sunday School today was from the first chapter of Ecclesiastes. The second verse brought back a memory from my childhood. The verse states, Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

It was written by the smartest fellow in the world, Solomon, in the 10th century B.C. He was the smartest guy in the world, and he realized everything of this earth is fleeting. There had to be more to life than just possessions, pride and power. Each of us have more to do than collecting stuff and taking up space. That’s basically what he was writing about.

It was a good lesson. While pondering on this I was reminded of a picture that hung in our home when I was a kid. It was in my grandmother’s room at the rear of the house. To get to her room from our living room I had to walk down a long hall. Our bathroom was near the end of that hall, and beyond the bathroom was her room in which hanged that dreaded picture.

From a distance the picture looked like a skull floating on a dark background. Blackened eyes. A Toothy grin. It glared at me when I needed to go to the bathroom as a child. Even if the door was closed to her room, I knew it was hanging there waiting for me to walk by.

I was afraid of that part of the house. I knew the picture was there, and I knew my grandfather had passed away in that very room. Was it him in that picture, I wondered.

At night I would hold off going down that hall to the bathroom as long as I possibly could. It was enough to make a kid a bed-wetter just to keep from going back there in the wee hours of the night. An old house kinda talks to you in the silence of the nighttime hours. A creak here. A pop there. Old bones settling into place, so they say. Windowpanes rattling in the wind. Wallpaper breathing in and out from uninsulated walls.

But as I began to grow up I grew more brave. Also, I learned to read. When I first began to stand in front of the picture and really give it a good looking over I realized it wasn’t a skull at all. It was a picture of a beautiful lady sitting at her vanity, admiring herself in the mirror. Spread out before her were various bottles and jars. They were probably perfume bottles, and makeup in jars. Cold cream as we used to call it when I was a kid.

Then after I learned to read I noticed the caption of the picture stated, "All Is Vanity”. The picture was no longer frightening to me. I had learned that things aren’t always what they appear to be. It was all about perspective.

Today I was reminded about that again. There’s more to us than us. It’s not who we are or what we possess. That’s what Solomon, the wisest, wealthiest, and most powerful man of his time, was trying to tell us. It’s what we do with our time while we are here. We aren’t here solely for our own benefit. We are here for Him and the people around us. As I said before, it was a good lesson. You had to be there.

Twenty years ago my mother passed away and we were deciding which one of us needed different Items that remained in her estate. That picture reappeared once more. My brothers asked if I would like to have it. I looked at the pretty lady sitting in front of the mirror, backed away a bit and saw the skull glaring back at me, and declined. “It won’t go with our décor.”

I’m glad I passed on it because I’m a senior citizen now. I’d have to walk by that thing a dozen times a day on my trek to the bathroom.

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Rick Algood
March 3, 2019