“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.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
Something Beautiful BONUS: Beautiful in its Time – Ecclesiastes 3:11
I love this printable of the pink flower with ruffly petals. It really made me think of this verse in Ecclesiastes. It is beautiful, but it is also mysterious. You can’t see to the base of the petals and they fold in on one another. God has set the beauty of eternity in our hearts but we cannot comprehend the entirety of what God is up to throughout eternity.
Let’s unpack Ecclesiastes 3:11 one phrase at a time.
Everything Beautiful
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
This verse follows the “There is a time for every activity under heaven…” – times for joy and sorrow, planting and reaping, killing and healing, war and peace, tearing down and building up…
Then, the author says something interesting in verse 10:
“I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied.” Ecclesiastes 3:10
In other words, your job. Your gifts and callings. Your mission. The things God has set before you to do. This sentence is followed by the thought that God “has made everything beautiful in its time.”
God has made our daily living and breathing lives beautiful. We simply need to open our eyes to the beauty that we have been ignoring during times of focusing on our pain and confusion and hard times.
Eternity in our hearts
“He has also set eternity in the human heart;”
Beyond the daily, practical, relatively short lives that God has made beautiful in its time, God also “set eternity in the human heart.” He put something inside all of us that realizes there is something more. Something that knows life goes on past physical death. Something that reads the Word of God and knows that we need a Savior so we can spend eternity in God’s presence.
Incomprehensible
“Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
We cannot possibly understand the mind of God.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
“For as heaven is higher than earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9T
There are some really intelligent people in this world, but even the smartest person cannot begin to understand the mind of God. We are made in His image but are only a shadow of the full complexity and beauty of Who He is.
Action Step:
As we paint the layers upon layers of the pink petaled bloom, let’s contemplate the incredible layers of beauty in our Creator God. He is with us and loves us even when we don’t deserve it. He brings beauty and joy into our daily lives. Think about something beautiful God has brought into your life – big or small – and give thanks to Him!
Come to the Facebook group @DevoInAction (https://www.facebook.com/devoinaction) and share your thoughts about today’s devotional or post a pic of your journaling under Beautiful in its Time – Ecclesiastes 3:11 or post on Instagram and tag me @devoinaction!
THEN, comment on someone else’s post to encourage and build them up in the Lord!
Prayer:
Dear God, Help us to see the beauty You brought into our lives. Draw the eternity You put in our hearts to Your heart. Let us hold onto You even when we don’t understand what You are doing. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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