For Everything there is a Season

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;a time for war, and a time for peace."
~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

    One of the first things all Christians learn is that in the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.  We learn about the seven days of creation, and how on the seventh day God rested.  But something many theologians study and debate in depth is the relativity of time, and what it is to God compared to what it is to us.
     We also know that all things are within God's control.  That's one of the points of the story of creation.  Time is also within God's control, though the "beginning" in the Bible is relative considering that for God there is no beginning and no end.  The "beginning" was simply a term used to mark where our stretch of understanding could start since we can't accept or process infinity in our limited imaginations.
     To consider time being within God's control is both comforting and disconcerting.  In some ways we put time on the same level as or even above God, and think that God works within time's confine instead of the other way around.    But time is simply the way that God explains that to us which we could never understand here on earth.  Beginning and endings are simply markers God places for us to have some sort of handhold of understanding.  But time is not the basis of God, and it is not infinite.

     God talks about this in Ecclesiastes 3.  He discusses how "to everything there is a time".  When I read this section before, I always thought of those times as smaller segments in something much larger.  But what I think God really meant was that truly, to everything there is a time.  Time does not exist to God, He creates it.  Infinity stretches on, but God places little segments of time in that infinity because truly, time will have a beginning and an end.
     Our lives are made up of segments of time.  Those segments have beginnings and they have ends.  With those ends and beginnings come changes and new segments of time.  God does not intend for any of these segments to last and change is important because this is not our eternity.  Time is meant to be fleeting and changing because this life is not permanent.  It's all temporary.


     What blows me away about this is that looking at it with that perspective, how meaningful my life actually becomes.  God has no time!  He is infinite!  He does not look for changes or beginnings or endings, He simply is!  And yet with that infinity, with that omniscience, He created this world.  He created every single detail and living and nonliving thing upon this earth.  Within all of that absolutely incredible, awe inspiring power and creativity, He created me with the same amount of precision, detail, and power.  He knew that while I wouldn't understand infinity here on earth, and I would allow time to overrun me, He still plans such amazing things for me!  He took this small segment of infinity, and gave it to me, and said "do something with this".  He has grand plans for me, and gave me joy and gave me strength and creativity and everything that makes me me and said "now use this, use what I gave you and celebrate in Me because I love you and I wanted you to have this, and then when you are done we will spend eternity celebrating".  Even with the presence of sin, my doubt, my worries, my misunderstandings, He still gave me this segment of time and He still gives me the promise of eternity, and He also promises me that while there may be bad things in this life they won't last.

     To everything there is a season.
     A time to die.  A time to pluck.  A time to kill.  A time to break down.  A time to weep.  A time to mourn.  A time to cast away.  A time to refrain.  A time to lose.  A time to tear.  A time for silence.  A time to hate.  A time for war.
     While God does not create all that, or wish it upon us, it happens.

     But while that happens, He also gives us the same promise over again in a new light.
     There will be a time to be born.  A time to plant.  A time to heal.  A time to build up.  A time to laugh.  A time to dance.  A time to gather together.  A time to embrace.  A time to seek.  A time to keep.  A time to sew.  A time to speak.  A time to love.  A time for peace.


    Sometimes this is so hard for me to remember, because I allow time to become my master and it drives me to worry and stress.  It makes me feel like God has forgotten me.  It makes me feel like my life is all in my hands and I'm ruining it.  But then God and tells me that no, this is not my job.  It is not my job to control it all.  It's not my job to know the future.  He has it all mapped out, and He has the timing perfect.  To all my hardships they will not last.  They have a time and that means it will have an end.  And while that also means that new ones will arise, I'm also told and promised that there will also be joys.  And while those joys will have their ends too, new ones will still arise.  And of course, I'm also promised that when it's all over, the ultimate joy will come in Heaven and time will have no power.