July 29, 2013 (Monday)
“.. 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 3:11 NLT)
God’s creation is perfect and beautiful. The faces of the spider and the crab are ugly in our eyes, but not in God’s. Each has exactly the kind of face necessary to fulfill its part in the great plan of God for nature in our world.
We don’t always see things God’s way. We have “eternity in our hearts,” the ability to see things from God’s point of view, but some of us never see that, and others of us spend our lives learning to see it. Romans 8:28 (God can take bad things and work them together for good) is a lesson not easily learned. We spend our lives trying to understand the bad things (“bad” from our human point of view).
Many people take Solomon’s advice (vs 12) and just try to be happy. Others follow the example of Jesus, and go into the world to make changes for the better. Which path are you following?
Partial context:
Ecclesiastes 3:9-14 (NLT):
9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet 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. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.