Everything Is Beautiful in Its Time
“Everything has its time, and everything that is desired under heaven has its hour”–Ecclesiastes 3:1
How important time is for human beings! It is one of the most priceless things on earth. In fact, it is said and repeated that time is gold, and yet it is constantly wasted and squandered. Phrases like: “I don’t have time! Time is slipping away from me! Yes, I have time! You’re making me waste my time!” are used constantly as if its management were something outside of us, but time is the material life is made of. The book of Ecclesiastes speaks to us of the value of life, and God allowed Solomon to be the one to write about it, because he was a man who had accomplished everything, who exceeded every man of his time in riches and wisdom, so that no one could say: “He wrote this way because he was bitter” or “He is just philosophizing,” but on the contrary, he was one who could say: “I did not deny my eyes anything they desired, nor did I withhold my heart from any pleasure, because my heart enjoyed all my labor; and this was my portion from all my toil” (Ecclesiastes 2:10), and God allowed it, so that he could also conclude his book by saying: “The end of the whole matter heard is this: “Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
“Everything has its time, and everything that is desired under heaven has its hour. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to destroy, and a time to build; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to scatter stones, and a time to gather stones; 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 be silent, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace” -Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
The fact that it is Solomon who says this is something we should take into account, for it is a great truth. From the moment we have life, we are subject to a time to be born and to die, and in that span, which for some is very short and for others may be long, we are subject to a time to do each thing. There is a time for everything under the sun; now the important thing would be to know how we are using and investing that time that has been given to us; are we doing everything in its time? There is a great advantage in doing things in their time; Solomon even said: “
“What profit has he who works from that in which he toils? I have seen the task that God has given to the sons of men to occupy themselves with. He made everything beautiful in its time; and He has put eternity in their hearts, without man being able to understand the work that God has done from the beginning to the end. I have known that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives; and also that it is the gift of God that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor. I have understood that everything God does will be forever; nothing shall be added to it, nor taken from it; and God does it so that men may fear before Him” -Ecclesiastes 3:9-14
Notice that our God made everything fitting, beautiful, pleasant in its time, so I understand that doing things on time is productive and beneficial. Our problem is that we want to do many things at the same time, yet the Preacher says that each thing has its time, so let us do one thing at a time. When this principle is ignored it is not unusual to hear an old man say: “Oh, if only the young knew!” and the young say: “Oh, if only the old could!” because when the young can, they don’t know, and when the old want to, they can’t, but both must learn that there is a time for everything and that everything must be done in its time. No one can be a grandfather at seven years old, and if he could, he would not know how. That is why it is so regrettable, and the price so high, that humanity is paying for the social catastrophe of giving free rein to sex, regardless of age. Thus we see children having children… But how good it is when everything is in its time.
Children must be allowed to enjoy their childhood. Let us teach our children to do everything in its time, so that they may enjoy and delight in each stage of their lives as it should be. The happiest years of a human being are from one to four years old, yet we want to rush their growth process, though not necessarily their maturity. Now we enroll them in a daycare so that they begin to “learn,” to know the colors, the numbers, the letters, without taking into account that from that moment on this is what they will do all their lives: keep schedules, do homework, perform jobs, submit to an order, to a routine. At least let them enjoy their infancy, their toys, their freedom to discover themselves and the world around them, without complicating their lives at such an early age with stress and anxiety.
If Christians were not begotten by God, and could be manufactured, the ideal age to do it would be the first years of life, because it is the best age to instruct them, to teach them the fear of God, since it is the age when character is formed. Pythagoras said: “Educate the children and it will not be necessary to punish the men.” Yet that time God gives us as parents to enjoy our children and instruct them in the truth, in the principles, many of us find tedious, and we prefer to hand that responsibility to just anyone. We sacrifice time with our children, at the time when they need us most, to work overtime and fulfill our dreams of the house, and other material possessions, when the true treasure is the fruit of our womb (Deuteronomy 28:4).
Understand that God, being able to make or create things in an instant, took His time. He made the creation in six days and on the seventh He rested, to teach you that everything has its time, that the week has seven days, but within it includes a weekly rest.
Our Lord when He came to this world, lived this way, everything in its time. He began His ministry at thirty, because it was established that the priesthood began at thirty. In His childhood He was subject to His parents, and He was Joseph’s carpentry helper. He came to the feast not under pressure from His brothers but He said: “My time has not yet come, but your time is always at hand. (…) You go up to the feast; I am not yet going up to this feast, because My time has not yet been fulfilled” (John 7:6,8). Even at the moment of dying, when everything was already accomplished, He said, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “I thirst” (John 19:28), and He was the Son of God, and with His life He taught us that things are done on time. God always arrives on time.
What happens when things are not done on time? We fill our lives with frustrations and lamentation. We grow old lamenting yesterday for what could have been and was not; and we spend our money on psychiatrists, cardiologists and plastic surgeons, because worries take our years away before their time. But the Word of God tells us: “do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own anxiety. Sufficient for each day is its own evil”(Matthew 6:34); “Rejoice always (…) Give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16,18). God made everything for our sake, so that we might enjoy it. Let us learn to live the abundant life of God, where everything is done in its time, and that is why He makes everything beautiful and perfect.
Taken from the message titled “Everything Is Beautiful in Its Time” preached to our congregation by Pastor Juan Radhamés Fernández
