“Everything is weary. No one is able to speak. The eye isn’t satisfied by seeing; the ear not full of hearing. What was is what it’ll be, and what’s done is what’ll be done. And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything about which we can say, “Hey, look, this is new”? All of it’s been here, right in front of us, forever. No one remembers anything that’s happened before. And the next generation won’t remember anything either” (Ecclesiastes 1:8-11).
There’s a new channel that’s popped up on our guide this year. I’ve noticed it only because it has played “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” every night. Consistently. For weeks.
It may be the best metaphor for our world right now. Reality seems to be playing the same movie that was on just last night. You know it. It’s the one where hundreds of thousands of people are falling ill every day. The one where three- to four-thousand are dying over and over again. The movie where those in government accuse one another of trying to destroy the country.
And while there are movies I can watch again and again, I am tired of this one. In fact, I am weary of it.
Everything, the Teacher tells us, is weary. Not just people, but every part of Creation is done with this movie that keeps playing on repeat. It is the same thing, over and over again until there is nothing new.
But we can’t stop watching it, can we? Our eyes are glued to the screen; because, we are convinced that any moment there will be a new scene. We turn up the volume and listen in case there’s, at last, a new line of dialogue.
Yet, each time the movie starts and, look it’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” again.
There’s a literary device called a frame. A frame is the narrative in which another story dwells. Frames are important; because, we have to interpret what we’re reading or seeing with that surrounding story in mind. The frame, you see, can color the story. It can call into question if what is happening is the whole tale. Perhaps there is more than there seems. Maybe this repetition isn’t all there is.
This story, our story, exists inside a frame. It is one taking place inside a larger narrative, one that’s been going on a long time. It’s a story about change, where there is something new happening. A story told to us by one who dared to say that there is more than this movie that plays over and over again.
Look, the One says, I am making everything new.
We live within a bigger story, a story of the redemption of all things. It’s a story where love transforms everything. One where we will not all sleep, but we will be changed. Where not one thing in this universe will remain untouched.
In the depths of a story, it can be easy to forget the frame that surrounds it. Our interpretation of things are colored by a flawed narration. We can believe what is, in fact, false. It takes a reminder—someone who has seen this movie too—that we cannot take everything simply as it appears.
Because, while it seems this movie has been on every night, we are seeing something new.
Living Story, we feel trapped in a cycle without variation or change. It feels this movie is on repeat, and we can’t change the channel. Draw our gaze to the larger narrative that you are telling; so, we might find hope and know that, even now, you are making all things new.