Episode Details

Pray

Read: Ecc 3:9-11.

Meditation

Solomon has challenged our perception of the good life, showing us that life as a gift from God is itself a goodness to be thankful for. And yet, the question stubbornly persists, doesn’t it? Is there any good in life? We still want and desire what is good, and with the brokenness of the world around us, the question is pressing. And Solomon has more to say to us. Because believing in God is not just about some cold-hearted fatalism. No, what Solomon will go on to show us is that this longing in our hearts, this too, is a gift from God.

And so the first thing he says in verse 11 is that he assures us that there is good in life. It’s not just an endless misery fest. It’s not a hopeless enterprise where we are doomed to despair and pain. In verse 11 we find this wonderful affirmation: He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Life is God’s gift, and everything is part of his wonderful and beautiful plan.

And so we may ask: iI there anything good in life? My friend, in God’s plan, let me tell you with absolute certainty that everything in life is beautiful. Every single thing in existence plays its part in a symphony so magnificent, so breathtakingly beautiful, so astoundingly good, that no eye has seen it, no ear has heard it, no heart has imagined it. And note carefully that word: everything. He has made everything beautiful. There is nothing in all existence that falls outside of his good and perfect plan—not pain, or suffering, or toil. We serve and love a good God.

We do not serve a God who takes pleasure in pain. He is not sadistic. He is not evil. He is not dark or twisted. He does not take pleasure in destruction.

Our God is a God of beauty. He is good. And everything he does is good. There is not the barest shadow of darkness in him. And we see his goodness everywhere, don’t we? He has made a world full of colour, an endless variety of flowers and fantastic creatures. He made the vastness of space and all its awe-inspiring wonders. He made people. He made laughter and kindness, and compassion, and tenderness—in fact, he is those things. When we see laughter and kindness in the face of a friend, we are seeing a reflection of God’s beauty and goodness. He is love.

And so our God is a God of beauty. He is Himself unspeakably, unfathomably, and infinitely beautiful, and the source of all goodness and beauty.

It is this sovereign God who has made all things beautiful in their time. Every single thing in existence, every leaf on its tree, every fibre of clothing, every bird on the wing, every invention and artwork, every composition of music, every second of time, every person in history—all of it has been custom-designed, minutely and perfectly, to manifest his beauty and goodness. He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Now take note here, because there is something important to see. Notice that the passage does not say God will make everything beautiful in its time. It says he has made everything beautiful in its time. Every moment has its beauty for those whose eyes are open to see it. Every created thing in every single place is beautiful as it plays its part in his plan.

Maybe you have watched a skilled artist drawing a picture. It is quite amazing to watch the picture unfolding, to see the skill of the pencil strokes, to see the mind of the artist materialise before our eyes on paper.

So it is with God, but his canvas is the canvas of creation, and his brush strokes unfold in ten thousand countless places in every single moment andmedium. History is his masterpiece, and moment by moment he is painting, always and in everything.

And so it is that Solomon reminds us of the truth: “we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (verse 11). How can we possibly hold the master plan of God in our puny minds