每年春天，芬芳四溢的櫻花在日本綻放，淡雅和鮮豔的粉紅色花朵交相輝映，讓當地居民和遊客陶醉其中。花期不長的櫻花使日本人養成一種敏銳的意識，即良辰美景當前，就該盡情品味。愈是「好花不常開，好景不常在」，愈是應該珍惜把握，好好欣賞。他們將這種刻意享受某種稍縱即逝之事物的態度，稱為「物哀」。

一般人都會期盼快樂的感覺能持續愈久愈好。然而，現實生活往往充滿艱辛，因此我們必須培養一種能力，那就是透過對慈愛上帝的信靠來看待人生苦樂。我們無須過度悲觀，也不需要刻意營造出不切實際的陽光形象。

傳道書為我們提供了一個值得學習的處世態度。雖然有人認為，這卷書所呈現的盡是負面的想法，但這位寫下「凡事都是虛空」（1章2節）的所羅門王，同時也鼓勵讀者從生活簡單的事情中尋找快樂。他說：「人在日光之下，莫強如吃喝快樂。」（8章15節）

無論身處順境或逆境（3章11-14節，7章13-14節），只要祈求上帝幫助我們「明白智慧」，並學習觀看「上帝一切的作為」（16-17節，和合本修訂版），就會滿有喜樂。因為我們知道，這世上的一切都只是暫時的。

Sweetly fragrant cherry tree blossoms flood Japan with exquisite pale and vibrant pinks every spring, delighting the senses of residents and tourists alike. The short-lived nature of the blossoms cultivates a keen awareness in the Japanese to savor the beauty and scent while they linger: the very brevity of the experience heightens the poignancy of it. They call this deliberate enjoyment of something that will change quickly “mono-no-aware.”

As humans, it’s understandable that we’d want to seek and prolong feelings of joy. Yet the reality that life is riddled with hardship means we must cultivate the ability to view both pain and pleasure through a lens of faith in a loving God. We needn’t be overly pessimistic, nor should we fashion ourselves an unrealistically sunny outlook on life.

The book of Ecclesiastes offers a helpful model for us. Though this book is sometimes thought to be a catalog of negative statements, the same King Solomon who wrote that “everything is meaningless” (1:2) also encouraged his readers to find joy in the simple things in life saying, “There is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad” (8:15).

Joy comes when we ask God to help us “know wisdom” and learn to observe “all that God has done” (vv. 16-17) in both beautiful seasons and in difficult ones (3:11-14; 7:13-14), knowing that neither is permanent on this side of heaven.