Can you step back, look at the past year, and say, “Thank you, God. This was beautiful”?
In 1965, the folk-rock band the Byrds recorded Pete Seeger’s "Turn! Turn! Turn! To Everything There is a Season”. The lyrics of the song follow the Preacher’s most famous poem, found here in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, almost word for word. The song topped the Billboard charts and became an anthem of the 1960s peace movement. Some fathers will remember.
The thoughts and phrases of the Preacher’s poem have found their way into the language of our pop culture. It’s a beautifully balanced rhythmic lilt, 14 lines pitting actions and emotional states against their opposites and intended to include everything in between.
What matters are not the 28 individual elements, but all the elements taken as a whole - the multiples of 7 symbolizing completion or perfection. Within the whole, we see a gentle ebb and flow of different moods and experiences. Some things we long for, others shock us.
Ecclesiastes 3 gifts us with a vision of the whole tapestry of life. We are invited to step back and look at life with all its rhythms and turns. For some of us this is difficult. For some, it may be too painful, too unsettling. The text invites us to …
- Step Back to See the Whole
- Embrace the Mystery of Longing to See it All
- Revere the One Who Does
Reflection Questions
- Where are you on your spiritual journey today?
- Are you wrestling with the barbed wire?
- Are you grateful for the longing for eternity that God has placed in your heart?
- Are you in a place of reverence and awe?
- Are you grateful for God’s good gifts?
- Are you trusting God to weave together the threads of your life?
- How is God inviting you to respond to Him today?
