Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

As this year comes to a close and with 2007 just around the corner…I can’t help but consider what this year has brought and speculate about what the upcoming one will bring. A couple days ago, this part of Ecclesiastes was going through my mind, so I pulled out my Bible and read through these familiar words…and I was brought back to a time that was filled with hopes and dreams when a girl I barely knew on the other side of the world wrote out this passage in a birthday card for me. I remember thinking how beautiful her handwriting was and how thoughtful it was for her to give me a card when she scarcely knew me…but it has only been in the past couple of years that these words have taken root…at the time, I was standing in the Sonlight of the world…everything was bright and shining…however, before long, I would be standing in shadow, wondering how everything blackened so suddenly. And since then, my view of the world has changed and I have come to appreciate the Sonlight against the backdrop of the shadow…and I have discovered that truly, there is a time under heaven for every season.

One of my favorite authors says, “Nothing comes to you without first going through the hands of our loving Father…” As I read through these activities that occur under heaven…the planting and uprooting…the weeping and laughing…the embracing and refraining…the tearing and mending…I have to simply stand in awe that we rest in the all-knowing embrace of a Father who loves us with reckless abandon. He can take a look at my life…at who I am…and though it may not appear as such, He knows how to work things for the good (Romans 8:28). Many of the circumstances I found myself in this year were not as I would have chosen…but Abba, who knows me and my thick-skulled-ness, knew what it would take to get through to me in His ever persistent way. And as I sit here catching my breath from the race I have been running these past few months, I feel a heart at peace…a heart that is processing and understanding and falling in love with Him all over again…so thankful that my reality is His grace.