UNDERSTANDING, BEAUTY AND ETERNITY

Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Also, He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

Life hasn’t turned out the way you had pictured; the fairy tale has been shattered, your body is broken or perhaps you are walking through a fog of overwhelming grief.  Whatever your situation, it isn’t fair, it isn’t beautiful and “if this is God’s plan for my life” it wasn’t thought out very well.

Every one of us views the world through the prism of our current situation.  If life is good and “all is right with the world,” our rose-colored glasses are just another accessory as we stroll merrily along the path.  And then, without, warning, the rose-colored glasses get “stepped on” and we grab the dark “shades,” not because the sun is shining brightly but to hide the dark circles under eyes swollen with tears.  Where is the beauty?  Does God even notice; does He Care?  Where IS God in my situation?  I will never understand WHY!!!

UNDERSTANDING!!!  Our wisdom has met its limits and “no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”  We look at a puzzle piece and fret because we cannot visualize the finished puzzle.  We have been around the entire puzzle, turning the piece in every imaginable way but it just doesn’t fit the picture.  Tightly clutching the seemingly, errant puzzle piece will never bring the solution.  Open your hand, let go of the confusing piece; God has been working on your puzzle from the beginning.  Perhaps this is the piece He needs to complete the work He has started in you.

BEAUTY, when does that happen?  Life gets messy and sometimes downright nasty; we search but we see no beauty in the storm clouds that have gathered.  How can this be the WILL OF GOD?  IT ISN’T!!!  I know that there are many Preachers and Fellow Believers that will tell you, “ACCEPT IT!  THIS IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOUR LIFE!!!  “BALONEY”  This is NOT what God intended for you from the beginning, but He WILL USE IT for your good, if you stop trying to figure it all out and place it in His hands.  Though the back of your tapestry may look like a “knotted mess,” God sees the front…a beautiful masterpiece, fashioned by His hands.

“This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.”

When WHY is illusive, ask God to give you a glimpse of ETERNITY…the eternity He has put in your heart. Embrace the truth, life in this world is just temporary; it is just “staging;” preparation for all God has planned for our eternal joy.  Not one of us is going to get out of this world alive, but death is merely the GATEWAY TO ETERNITY.  Though we may never understand, we can conquer the flood of fear, secure in the knowledge of His great love and the faithfulness of His sacrifice on the cross.

 So we give in and we give up…Go ahead GIVE UP; place the situation and your trust in the only one who can work all the twists and turns of life into a beautiful ending; IN ITS TIME.