Ecclesiastes // Chasing MeaningSample

Ecclesiastes 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

This powerful verse has three truths to consider. Let’s take them one by one.

God has made everything beautiful in its time.
Have you ever watched a great artist paint a picture? The initial brush strokes may look out of place, and the canvas may appear chaotic. But then the colors, strokes, and images start coming together to form a beautiful masterpiece. Paul tells the Ephesians that every believer is God’s work of art, his masterpiece (Eph. 2:10). In God’s perfect plan and way, everything becomes beautiful in its time. Hang in there! God is not finished with you yet.

God has put eternity in our hearts.
In his book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes about man’s longings and desires. He says, “The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones.” Then Lewis makes this profound statement, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” God has made us for another world. He has put eternity in our hearts. One day, with Jesus, our hearts will be fully satisfied.

Man cannot understand what God has done from the beginning to the end.
True wisdom is coming to grips with the reality that we don’t know everything. One writer says that we were not “built to understand the big picture, precisely because we live in time and God does not. If we could see the end from the beginning and understand how a billion lives and a thousand generations and unspeakable sorrows and untold joys are all woven into a tapestry of perfect beauty, then we would be God.”¹ We are not all-wise, but God is! And we can always trust him.

Father, thank you for your perfect wisdom and your eternal being. May we always trust you, even when we don’t understand. You have put eternity in our hearts, and one day that deep longing will be fulfilled. You do make all things beautiful in your time. In Jesus’ name. Amen.