A Lenten email

The Lenten devotional email included the words of Ecclesiastes 3 and those words couldn’t have been more on target. It was a day when my daughter was attending the funeral for the mother of one of  her closest friends as I was attending a wedding – a time to mourn and a time to dance. And what, made those words even more timely was that day was originally supposed to have been that same friend’s baby shower – a time to be born and a time to die. In a strange way the words of Ecclesiastes 3 perfectly described the day.  I felt such sadness, such a sense of this is wrong.  As I prayed and prayed for my daughter’s friend (and my daughter)  God reminded me in that Lenten email that He has made everything beautiful in its time. Thank you, Lord. Thank you.

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet  no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 -11