By: Judith Hargett

I have come to a most unpleasant conclusion after careful consideration of the facts…followed by much sneezing and general hankie waving. The conclusion? At some point during our move from Texas to Missouri seven years ago, some living being took up residence in our computer. Being without proper nourishment, the creature perished and began the slow process of decay. It’s really the only explanation for what I found.

This sad event came to light just recently when we unplugged our faithful computer for the last time. She, Adell Grace, had served us well for many years, 11 to be exact. We had been through so much together. She was instrumental in helping me write hundreds of cards and letters, prepare tax returns I’d fretted over, send out and receive thousands of e-mails and set up all manner of schedules that seemed needful at the time. But like me, Adell kept getting older and slower. We frequently got messages from Microsoft saying our computer was running low on memory. Again. Just like me. Yet I was fond of the machine. I was familiar with her programs, her commands. But the world is ever changing. More data than I can ever absorb, or have any interest in knowing, is constantly flowing into our home through some piece of technology. It finally became too much for Adell; and she had a data breakdown, barely functioning at all. Her unnamed replacement had been on standby for a week (out of sight), but I had used the excuse of busyness to delay the transition a few more days. Then the ice and snow came and I was housebound for five days. The time had come.

I wonder what Solomon would think about computers. You might be familiar with his words in Ecclesiastes 1:9: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (It is assumed by most scholars that the author of Ecclesiastes is Solomon.) Solomon’s legendary wisdom is detailed in I Kings 4. Look at verse 29: “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.” And in I Kings 3:12 God says to Solomon: “I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.” So. If the smartest man that ever lived, or ever will live says there is nothing new, I’m going to believe him.

Of course there are new things being made all the time, but there are no new ideas. I like the way Warren Wiersbe states it in The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, “Whatever is new is simply a recombination of the old. Man cannot create anything new because man is the creature, not the Creator.” While general knowledge may be rapidly increasing because of technology, the knowledge of God seems to be decreasing almost as rapidly…and there goes wisdom. Not to mention hope because God created man with eternity in his heart. (See Ecclesiastes 3:11.) We cannot have true joy, or purpose, without God.

I am writing this from the new computer. We’re slowly getting acquainted. I’ll try to take better care of this one. You see, when we unplugged Adell and I could see the back of her… well, I never saw so much dust in one place. And that is why I came to the conclusion that something must have died inside her cabinet for, according to Solomon, “All go to the same place; all come from dust; and to dust all return.” (Ecclesiastes 3:20)