He has made everything beautiful in its time.

i wanted to share a passage i read during worship last sunday.  i got to have dinner with some old roommates yesterday, and really enjoyed talking with them - it was one of those conversations where the gospel flowed in and out without effort or specific thought......i was encouraged by how each woman was living in light of the gospel.

and reminded again of this passage.....i've posted the entire thing, even though it's long.  how very sweet and kind of our God to include these words in the Bible, reminding His foolish daughter that it is alright to enjoy the joy of finished toil, without guilt.  His ways are not mine, and i can trust what is coming from His hand - trust the blessings do not come with strings attached, just as i have previously trusted that tears and pain have purpose and will not destroy.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

What gain has the worker from his toil?  I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.

I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.  That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away."

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-14