EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL
July 1st |
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV) 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 the beginning to end.
Humans long for purpose and meaning. We long to be part of something bigger—a story that gives weight to our existence. But in the business of everyday life, we often settle for a short-sighted view. Our vision narrows to the things right in front of us: the deadlines, the comforts, the crises. We end up getting lost and consumed by our own story and lose sight of the eternal magnificence of God.
But we must remind ourselves that even the most mundane parts of our lives—our routines, our frustrations, our unseen acts of faithfulness—are not wasted, as He makes everything beautiful in its time. What seems ordinary to us is often the very place where God is quietly working out His eternal purposes. Even the longing we have for something greater comes from Him because he has set eternity into man’s heart.
Yet man is limited in what he can see. Sin, worldliness, and our own fallen nature often times blinds us to these truths. This is why we cannot fathom or fully understand what God has done from beginning to end. This is why we sometimes find ourselves frustrated and overwhelmed with the challenges of life. Our finite understanding cannot always make sense of His infinite wisdom. To live with this awareness is to live by faith.
The Apostle Paul writes, “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor 4:18). Faith lifts our vision beyond the things of this life. It helps us see that our story is not meaningless or mundane, but that it is woven into the fabric of God’s greater story and that it too will be made a part of what is beautiful in the fullness of time.
Until then we trust that God is working all things together for good for those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). And while God’s ways often seem hidden or incomprehensible in this life, we take heart because we know that at just the right time, all of God’s purposes will find their end in Jesus Christ, who will reunite heaven and earth according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph 1:7-12).
May the Lord give us eyes of faith to see beyond our circumstances, and may our hearts rejoice as we wait for and even hasten the coming of our Lord and King.
