A Time for Everything

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” — Ecclesiastes 3:1

Have you noticed how the year changes? In spring, flowers bloom and new leaves grow. In summer, it’s warm and sunny. In autumn, the leaves turn red and gold and fall off the trees. In winter, it’s cold, and sometimes it snows. And then spring comes round again.

Every season is different. And every season has its own time.

The book of Ecclesiastes was written by a wise teacher who thought very hard about life. In one famous part, he wrote a poem about how there’s a right time for everything:

“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to pick,
a time to cry and a time to laugh,
a time to be sad and a time to dance,
a time to hug and a time not to hug,
a time to look for something and a time to stop looking,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be quiet and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.”

Life has different times. Happy times and sad times. Times to laugh and times to cry. Times to talk and times to listen. Times to start new things and times when things come to an end.

Sometimes we wish the happy times would last for ever, and the sad times would hurry up and finish. But the teacher says that God is in charge of all the seasons of our lives.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time,” the teacher wrote.

Even when we’re in a sad or difficult season, God is still working. He can make even the hard times beautiful in the end, in His own time. We may not understand it now. But we can trust Him.

And then the teacher said something very interesting. “He has also set eternity in the hearts of people.” Deep inside, all of us long for something that lasts for ever. That’s because God made us for Himself, to be with Him for ever.

Read it in your Bible: Ecclesiastes 3:1–14

Dear God, thank you that you are in charge of every season of my life. When I’m in a sad time, help me to remember that you make everything beautiful in its time. Amen.