Beautiful…In Its time

Ecclesiastes 3:11

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Our text today is both short….and well-loved. The author, and “teacher” is Solomon, the third king of Israel. As you know, he was known for his wisdom, which he had received from God because he asked for it.  He is also the writer of Proverbs, the book that directly precedes this one.

In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon reflects on the futility of all human endeavor. The writing seems very negative and dour. No matter how hard we try, the finish is always the same…we die. The righteous often are put down, the unrighteous often seemingly get by with sin.

Wealth…… the more you have the more you want. No satisfaction.

Power….. it seems to corrupt.

Wisdom…. the more you get, the more miserable (sorrowful) you seem to get.

Fun….. temporary, but not satisfactory

The writer concludes that all is vanity, meaningless, useless.

However, his conclusion is drawn on the assumption that we are talking about “under the sun”, what we can see and experience by our own senses, i.e., life without God. When we include God in the equation, the writer seems to draw different conclusions.  And today we want to look at a beautiful verse in chapter 3. Verse 11.

1. God has made everything beautiful in its time.

Will all things become beautiful in God’s time? If we wait?

• We can think of an easy example from nature: we plant a seed in the ground, the sun shines, the rain provides water; we wait – and yes, in time a beautiful flower appears and grows!
• Or, we might consider a more difficult situation. A loved one of ours is diagnosed with cancer…and dies. Will this situation become beautiful in time? Is that what we should expect? Well, not exactly. Here we recognize that while the sickness itself, or the result of that sickness (the death of our loved one) may never be beautiful, yet – we may through that tragedy experience a growth in our faith, or endurance, or dependence on God – and all of these results would be beautiful!
• Or what about a more extreme example – our present world – filled with war and hate, murder, and greed. Do these become beautiful? No, of course not! But again, God works in his time and way…to bring beauty into our lives, even through these sinful and wicked ways of humanity. War and hate will never be beautiful. But they will NEVER be the final word. They cannot stop God’s saving grace, working in our lives. 

This is really a statement of faith isn’t it? Whatever God does, or whatever God allows in our life will turn out to be beautiful and to our benefit. This means that trials as well as joys, sickness as well as health, poverty as well as wealth、wars as well as peace…all of these can be used by God to bless us and direct us. 

It reminds us of Paul’s words in Romans 8:28:

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

2. He has placed eternity in our hearts.

This is where we are different from other creatures. A dog can lie before the fire, warm and content. We humans would soon become restless. We are always seeking for the meaning of life. Is there more than this??  God has allowed us to imagine a life beyond death. In fact, God has made us to long for…and envision such a life. We will never truly rest and be satisfied until we rest in God, find our identity in Him.

In John 11 Jesus says these words:

25 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Do we believe this? We are promised eternal life!

Let us invest our time and efforts in that which remains for all eternity. What would that look like for you this week?

3. We cannot understand the greatness of all God is doing.

And Solomon concludes with this: There is always a mystery about God. We accept His will by faith. No matter how much we try to define God, or put him in a box, there is an unknowable portion. How could it be otherwise? We in our finite and limited minds will never fully comprehend all the beauty and greatness of God.

So let us claim the truths of this beautiful passage!

All things are beautiful in God’s time.

We all have eternity in our hearts. Strengthen those things that remain!

We cannot understand perfectly or confine God. His plans are bigger than us!

(the above is a summary of the message shared during our worship on June 7, 2026.)