Five Gifts

Four times Ecclesiastes stops and says there is nothing better, and a fifth time it tells you plainly what to do. Read together, those five passages name five gifts: a meal with friends, a good day’s work, the person you love, what you can give away, and the choice to rejoice. None of them waits for better circumstances. There is a way of living inside those gifts, which I have come to call play.

Friends in chairs around a backyard fire with mugs in their hands; one man, still in his work shirt, has loosened a red tie.

01

Feast with Friends

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Presence matters more than polish, and soup will do. Set the table anyway. Every feast is a protest against despair.

Four people in a waiting room playing cards around an open red pizza box.

Two men carrying a wooden dresser up a flight of steps, a red strap around it.

02

Do Some Good

Ecclesiastes 9:10

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. Your work joins God in what he is still making, and the joy is in the doing.

A woman carrying a red bag of groceries up the front steps of a house, the car trunk open behind her with more bags inside.

A couple on a couch on a weeknight, his arm around her, the television off and a red phone face down on the table.

03

Enjoy Your Partner

Ecclesiastes 9:9

The verb is enjoy, the word you would use about a good meal. You cannot enjoy someone you no longer notice. Ask one question tonight that is not about logistics.

A couple walking and laughing toward an elevator in a parking garage, a red phone in her hand.

Four people at a table in the middle of a meal, with one more place set and a red plate waiting at it.

04

Share Your Stuff

Ecclesiastes 5:19

Everything you own will one day belong to someone else. That can make you afraid, or it can set you free. An open hand holds more. Open the good bottle.

A spare bedroom made up for a guest, with a red basket of gifts on the rug by the bed.

A man in a coat stepping through a puddle in the rain, smiling, his red umbrella closed in his hand.

05

Opt for Joy

Ecclesiastes 8:15

In whatever you're facing, choose joy, not because life is easy, but because it is short. Joy and sorrow can come in the same minute: a laugh at a memory, then tears for the person in it. Judge the direction by the decade, not the day.

A woman home from work stepping into a child's bedroom, her bag and jacket dropped in the hall with red keys beside them, the girl smiling up from bed.