Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Memory Verse: Ecclesiastes 3:1
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”

Song: Morning by Morning by Pat Barrett 

A few months ago, we sat across from a young boy we’d fallen in love with who was deeply in need of a family and told him we would not be adopting him. It was a time for mourning. It was not what we signed up for, nor anything we ever thought we would be doing, and it was certainly not what seemed best for him. Yet, it is where we found ourselves. Whether you find yourself in “a time to mourn or a time to dance” at this exact moment, the Bible makes it clear that our joy is not subject to the rising and falling of our seasons. 

In the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes, everything has been declared hebel, a Hebrew word most closely meaning vapor. Something that has the illusion of permanence or solid substance yet disappears the moment it’s touched. We then come to the passage declaring there is “a time for every matter under heaven.” What are we to determine from these two passages? Our life is a fleeting moment in time, yet the Lord has appointed everything in it. 

Let’s first consider them separately. If our earthly life is just a vapor, here for only a moment, it gives everything a new perspective. The trial and tribulation we experience here is next to nothing compared to the glory of eternity face to face with the Lord. 

If “for everything, there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven,” then there is not a thing in the world that surprises God. Beyond that, for something to be bound by time, it must have both a beginning and an end. Whether the end of a time is tomorrow or only when death comes, the end will come, and it will be followed by blissful eternity.

Knowing that the Lord appoints all seasons and times allows us to confidently and joyfully enter seasons of mourning. It allows us to sit across from a boy tossed about by the brokenness sin has caused and promise him that there is hope. It is what propels us forward with confidence that we are not only known by God but also seen by Him. He has made a way for us to know and be known by Him through Jesus, the one whose birth we celebrate this season. 

Would we look each day not to what is happening around us but to our dear Savior who bore the punishment we deserved to bring us near to our loving Father? 

Consider this before you move on with your day:

What time do you find yourself in today? How is it impacting your joy? Pray that the Lord would lift your eyes toward the Savior and fill you with unexplained, unrestrained, unshakeable joy.