“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get next.”

Forrest Gump viewed life like a box of chocolate candy – the kind you might get at Christmas time. When you first lift the lid, the candies look similar, but inside, each one is a mystery. It might have chocolate mousse, or coconut crème, or my personal favorite, caramel and nuts. Just as every chocolate is a surprise, so life always seems to bring some new, unexpected twist.

Solomon, King of Israel in the 9th century BC, agreed with this assessment, but took it one step further. In his experience, life was like a box of chocolates, and every one had a bitter aftertaste.

The king chased one pursuit after another. He tried money, sex, power, wine, music, horseback riding, and every other human delight. He also experienced sadness, sickness, betrayal, corruption, death of loved ones, injustice, and loss. Whether pleasure or pain, every new “chocolate” just left the same bitter aftertaste.

“Vanity of vanities!” He cried in exasperation. “All is vanity … All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 8-9).

This is Solomon’s impression from a strictly human perspective. Apart from God, life doesn’t make sense. It has a shortness and cruelty that is often inexplicable.

Pretty bleak, isn’t it? Thankfully, that’s not the end of the story. In the last chapter of his memoir, he discovers the secret of life. “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Solomon’s advice is simple. The key to happiness is living every day in the presence of our Creator. We’re not supposed to make sense of every tragedy or anticipate God’s next move. We’re just called to walk with him, one day at a time, enjoying the little things of life and obeying him because we will soon stand before him in judgment.

As the old children’s song says, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.”

In this life, some chocolates are sweeter than others. But every one of them is designed to draw us closer to God.

This article first appeared in Wednesday’s “Minister’s Message” of our local newspaper, The Hi Desert Star.