There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil – this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure for ever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-14)
Midsummer: as we reach the longest day and note that from now on, the world will continue to rotate in such a way that the sun appears to be moving ever onwards in a southerly direction, these words from the preacher in Ecclesiastes remind us that time is a finite commodity. “There is a time for everything.” Not most things, or convenient things, happy things, or negative things. There is an appointed time in God’s timetable for everything. “There is a time for every activity under Heaven.” God will take care of everything.
Of course, the pivotal moment in history occurred about 2000 years ago, when God Himself took human flesh, hung on a cross and gave His life for our sin. Three days later, at the other end of extreme possibilities, He rose triumphant from the dead! It was a time for death, and a time for resurrection! Through those events, we are granted access to eternity. Time has a meaning, and a direction. We look forward to a time when time itself will cease to exist!
Seasons come and go, change is a constant, the pendulum does not stand still - in nature and in human experience. No one is immune from ‘the merry-go-round of time’. Shakespeare called this the “seven seasons of life”.
Each and every stage has a purpose and a beauty of its own making. God’s timing is sovereign, sufficient, and also seasonal.
Notice something very important in these verses: Birth and death; Killing and healing; Tearing down and building up; Weeping and laughing; Mourning and dancing; Scattering and gathering; Embracing and refraining; Searching and giving up; Keeping and throwing away; Tearing and mending; Silence and speaking; Loving and hating; and War and Peace. A of these seasons are opposites, as summer is to winter. Life comes in seasons. It’s not just one big, long, monotonous grind. There are seasons of vigour, there are seasons of rest, there are seasons of loss, and seasons of renewal. I have lived through various times of life, in a variety of places, in the UK, and in Thailand. In some ways, my different experiences of life bear little relationship to one another, and yet the constant throughout them all is the knowledge that God has been with me. The key to living a full life, is to catch on to what God is doing in your life during each season’s ebb and flow.
God’s timing is sovereign, sufficient, seasonal, but also surprising. We’re not always ready for it. We never know what God will do next. One of the things that just jumps out of this passage is that we worship a very wise and inventive God. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are greater than our thoughts. It’s when we think we’ve got God figured out, that quite likely, He will do something new – something we least expect. He brings on another season, and surprises us with another of His various ways of working through people, events, and unexpected circumstances.
God has put eternity into our hearts, but we cannot know the beginning to the end. So it behoves us to take time to seek God in the ‘now’ time. Invite God into your life and your daily living. Study and obey His Word. Make an effort to allow your prayer time to be a two-way communication so that you can listen to what God would have you do today. Reverence God for His wisdom and ask for it - in all your dealings. Be selfless toward others. Maintain an attitude of gratitude for everything that comes our way. Enjoy the blessings you receive.
And never forget, God will have the final word, and everything He allows is working together for your good. Amen!
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