Beauty in His Time Ecclesiastes 3 P

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Ecclesiastes 3

Time.

Comes to us all.

One breath, rising

within us, a life.

Beauty

blooms in patient corners

of the heart. Until,

it draws upon itself

moving rhythmically

to His Time.

Within Nature

lies the mark of time

that sends her seasons

Acting an obedient part

in His play

of miniature worlds.

Within me.

lies a piece of eternity

that sends me roles of light,

and glimpses of an eternal round

playing to my direction

on a stage of my choice.

We bloom beauty

in His time.

We ply purpose

under His heaven.

We live His hope and design.

We find eternity

in His time.

Linda Conkey Shaw July 4, 2010Copyright

I walked the beach yesterday. I noticed several jelly balls (a non-poisonous non-tentacled jelly fish) washed ashore. It was time for jelly balls. Several languished in the shallow slews and children picked them up, tossing them back into the surf. Last week when I walked the shore it was the time for snails. As the tide ebbed out, hundreds of snails left trails of burrowed sand, like coiled strings. When I walked down by the inlet where the shorebirds were nesting, several concerned parents dive bombed me, giving me fair warning to keep my distance. It was their time to nest.

The storms have begun to come almost every afternoon now. It is the time of year when the heat scorches the land until the sky cries tears of mercy and begs for relief. Thunderclouds roll across the parched land. The flowers will bloom and then give seed. The birds will nest and then hatch chicks. Soon the seasons will change. Nature will follow it's "purpose under heaven".

We all have a purpose. We all have our beauty. God knows our purpose. He alone knows our beauty. He waits for us to realize that we are loved. We are beautiful. And we all have purpose. He waits for us to understand "our purpose under heaven".

These verses from 1-8 have been sung by Pete Seager, They Byrds, and many other musical artists. It is often repeated at funerals. I have not understood this. For reading these first eight verses at a funeral is to say that the dead has finished their time. If this were Solomon's single meaning, the chapter would not have gone on for 22 verses. I believe Solomon had a greater purpose than for us to merely accept our lot, our time. He wants us to accept "our purpose under heaven". That is different from accepting our purpose in time.

Time exists to mark our journey in this life. Time cannot be measured, it can only be marked by events. Time comes from our observations of the earth's events: sunrise, sunset, seasons, occurrences, events,etc. When we are gone from this life, time will have no meaning to us. Time cannot mark an eternal spirit.

Solomon wanted us to understand that God's work transcends time. God (vs 11) put the beauty of nature into our hearts, to ponder, so that we would not seek to understand he eternal round, "his beginning to end".

vs.1 God's plan is that everything has a "season" and purpose. A reason to live. A reason to die. We are no different from His everything. We are his children. If he has a purpose for all that he created, how could we not believe he has a purpose for us. We only have no purpose when we choose to not believe in the higher love.

vs. 2 .God's plan is that everything he created (nature) (man) has a time (season) to be born and to die. Look at the life span of butterfly, a bird, a cricket, a flower, a shaft of wheat. Within each of these creations lies an inward clock that brings... tells them what, when and where to be. Where is man's clock? I believe we all have one, but God has given us agency. So man (because he is a child of God) must learn to use his own time with wisdom.

vs 3 ... the cycle of creation, the cycle of life. the cycle of existence on this earth. We kill for food. We break down what God has given us so that we can have food, shelter, and clothing.

vs. 4 The cycle of emotion. .. It is important to feel all of these emotion. We cannot appreciate one without the other. Each emotion has a purpose. Each emotion has a reason it is in our life. Too much anxiety means our life is out of balance. Even joy can bring us to the realization of what we need to do to continue to progress.

vs 5 the cycle of forgiving... cast away the stones that seperate.. gather the stones to build a community of acceptance. Embrace those you forgive. Learn to let go those that will not be forgiven.

vs 6 the cycle of acquiring - sorting.. what is of value? What do we truly need? What can we take with us?

vs 7. the cycle of communication - we all make mistakes. When we have been wronged we need to know when the time is right to tear open the truth... when should we mend our relationships? How do we do this? through silence or through speech?

vs 9.. Solomon is now asking us about how time enters into the equation of profit? He wants us to understand that there is no profit in a never ending cycle of time and season that measures our existence here on earth. The only profit comes....

vs 11... when God makes everything beautiful... in his time...

God is in control of the earth. God is in control of our lives. God is in control. We need only to accept Him and realize that our understanding of eternity (in relation to the marked time here on earth) is the beginning of our understanding of God's wisdom.

vs 13 It is the gift of God.. to eat and enjoy the goodness of his labor well spent. We all have a need to spend our time wisely. To bring something meet for reward to our Father in Heaven when our time is ended.

va 14. Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. - God is eternal. God is spiritual. God does not end. All that he does is an eternal round.

vs 16-17 wickedness (not knowing God) and righteousness(acknowledging God) will be judged.. Why? Because God designed a purpose. If we all have purpose, God will want to see if we met our purpose. Think of a flower blooming. Sometimes I plant a seed and it does not sprout. It does not mature. Why? God will want to know why we didn't sprout? Why we didn't bloom.

vs 18-19 the ^aestate of the sons of men, - affairs of men. .. We are but beasts who must adhere to the cycles of life. birth, death, sleep, growth,. We came from dust. We, like the beasts will return to dust.

vs 21-22. Solomon knows that we will return upward, but he asks the question?