Everything Beautiful in its Time

Resting in the sovereign wisdom and goodness of God

“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.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

The vantage point of faith puts one in a position where the ordered, wise, and good purposes of God in creation can be readily affirmed: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (3:1). Whether birth or death (v. 2), planting or reaping (v. 3), war or peace (v. 8), faith understands that it is God, and not “chance”, that ordains the movements of this world, overseeing them all in sovereign and inscrutable wisdom. 

Considering this, Solomon confesses that God has made “everything beautiful in its time” (v. 11). Like an intricate tapestry, every thread, considered in light of the whole, works together to form a masterful work of beauty. The message of 3:1–15 is therefore that underneath all the apparent chaos of life Wisdom reigns; there is a foundation in the mist: “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” (v. 14). 

In a world of almost constant upheaval, it is critical that we learn to rest in Scripture’s vision of reality. Contrary to our feelings, and contrary to our narrow, limited, and often mistaken observations about the causes of things, the Bible reassures us that God oversees all the happenings of life under the sun. Nothing escapes the purview of His sovereign authority. Thus, His saints can rest in faith, knowing that the end for which God is working all things is not only good but beautiful:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” (Revelation 21:1–4)