I confess I don't even think about making a New Year's Resolution anymore. It's something I moved away from a number of years ago. Instead I begin asking God during the week of Christmas if there is a word and verse of scripture that I could take to heart over the coming year. This year it's phrase--
"A time for everything"
It's from a familiar passage in the book of Ecclesiastes.
1For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
2A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
9What do people really get for all their hard work?
10I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
11Yet
God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
He has planted
eternity in the human heart,
but even so,
people cannot see the whole
scope of God’s work
from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
Even as I write the words--"a time for everything", I wonder how far I would be willing to stretch this phrase? Do I truly believe there is a time for everything? EVERYTHING???!! And if so, what does this mean?
I sense that there is a wealth of meaning in simply the word "time" and I don't doubt that if I am wide awake to this I will glean much.
But then to add to this that Solomon proposes that there is "a time for everything" ----- this changes everything.
Verses 1-8 hold many questions for me. I am unsure of how to read them, believe them, explain them with some of the horror which life holds. It's easier for me to skip over some of the phrases and chalk it up as a mystery. The latter part of verse 11 says this in so many words--
"people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."
Ultimately it IS a mystery and cannot be understood by the human heart. Still, it remains that the title of this chapter is "A time for everything" and it goes on to list many of them.
So I purpose to study and reflect and question and learn and keep turning over and over in my mind and heart this brief portion of God's Word.
For sure I have a faithful Guide.
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