Time and Eternity

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven…

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 the beginning to the end.

                        Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 NIV 

     Finally, the first day of spring has arrived. After the record-breaking winter of cold and snow, today is a harbinger of green grass, flowers, sunshine and warmth. My part of the country already displays flowering red bud trees and spring flowers dotting the landscape. Today’s temperature, forecast to be in the high seventies, will undoubtedly turn many frowns upside down as sunshine warms our spirits. It is time!

     In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon reminds us that there is a time for everything. There is a time to be born and to die, to weep and to laugh, to mourn and to dance, to be silent and to speak…

     But, just as we long for spring as the winter winds howl and the cold chills our bones, we also long for the day when time ceases to exist and the reality of eternity with Christ begins. Solomon clarified what I call the God hole in the heart of every man when he explained that God has set eternity in the hearts of men.  

     As we look across the earth, discontentment rages like a massive uncontrollable wildfire. People are searching—longing for something to satisfy. Scientists strive to perfect the world by eradicating disease and pestilence. Governments try to create sustainable peace through war. Various religious leaders battle to convince the masses that their church doctrines are the only way to joy and happiness.

     But the perfection we seek can be found in God through Christ alone! Created in His image we travel through time with a restless yearning that can only be satisfied when, at the moment we drop our bodies of clay, time and eternity clash and we are instantly transported into the presence of our Holy Living God.

     In the meantime, we trust God, believe God, follow God and use the time we have been given to do God’s work on earth, but always looking forward to the day when our time ends as we begin the rest of eternity in the presence of our LORD!

© Joyce Powell