Eeyore of the Bible

"Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toilat which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever." -Ecclesiastes 1:2-4

I don’t know what went through your mind as you read the passage above, but I instantly thought about Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Of all the characters in the Hundred Acre Wood, Eeyore is the gloomiest of them all. He lives far from the other animals, in a place marked on the map, “Rather Boggy and Sad.” While all the other animals live happily with one another, going on adventures and visiting each other, Eeyore is alone with his thoughts.

For an animal who is stuffed-with-fluff, he spends an inordinate amount of time with his thoughts. He asks questions that seem out of place in a children’s book, especially when compared to the simplicity of Pooh Bear. He is a Bear of Very Little Brain, after all.

Eeyore, on the other hand, is glum and almost always has something sarcastic to say. And yet, strangely, he has an important place in the story of the Hundred Acre Wood. It seems like an odd choice to have a character so depressing in a children’s story, but he’s there, nonetheless, to round out the human experience. The story would be incomplete without Eeyore, and our kids would miss some important lessons about the full gamut of human emotions. His gloomy presence is needed just as much as Tigger’s energy and spunk. Eeyore matters, even if he’s not the most jovial character, and we can honestly say the story would be different without him.

The same is true for the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. If there is an Eeyore in the Bible, it would be this book. The Church found this book valuable enough to include in the Bible because it depicts raw, unfiltered human emotions. It may not be the most uplifting book, but that doesn’t make it unworthy of its inclusion. Actually, it adds an important perspective, a deeply human emotion, that must be represented in the Bible if we are to truly take Holy Scripture seriously.

The Bible encompasses the full spectrum of human emotions, allowing each of us a pathway into the Bible, regardless of the emotion we may be feeling when we pick up that Book on a given day. The important lesson is not to shy away from these strange (even gloomy) parts of the Bible, but we must also not wrestle with them alone. The Bible comes to life when it is read and wrestled with in community. So, be brave in what you read and adventurous enough to read it with others!