Pondering Ecclesiastes - There Is A Time For Everything

Can you envision a piece of land that used to be filled abundantly, to-the-brim, with water and life but that is now completely deserted? Do you see the cracks in the thirsty soil? The mud turned to desert; a sign of lost hope. Do you notice the lack of birds and even insects? All kinds of exciting things that were once drawn to the water now disappeared. Do you pick up that there’s a slight ‘hum’ sound in the background? – it sounds like the vibrations from a speaker giving feedback. But wait, the sound is becoming louder now. Ah, yes! It definitely is coming closer. Clouds roll in seconds later – they seem angry, perhaps they’re just impatient from waiting. The clouds rush and crash against one another letting little droplets fall here and there. The earth is expectant. And then, sweet-smelling rain is pouring down. Life is invited back into this wilderness-place as water breaks through the toughened surface of the earth to once again call the dead plants to revive. ‘Come out! Come out! The wait is over. The time to grow is here.’ 

THERE IS A TIME FOR EVERYTHING

In the book, Ecclesiastes, the wisdom preacher announces that there is a time for everything – a moment for deed under the sun. The change of these seasons is indicated by life changes and big decisions; similar to how autumn is indicated by the first leaves tumbling to the ground. We are pulled through different seasons in life,  some for growth, some for comfort;  some for others, and some for ourselves.  

A TIME FOR REST AND HEALING

First, for me, came a time of recuperation and restoration unlike any other. Unfortunately, to the human eye, this just seems like a dry season. Perhaps the truth is, I simply wasn’t paying attention. When winter naturally arrived it caught me off guard and I stubbornly tried to produce new leaves when all my circumstances were telling me otherwise. ‘Lean back’, He said. 

AND A TIME FOR AWAKENING AND FLOURISHING

This is when you heard the first pitter-patter of raindrops. This is where the rain was calling to the dead plants to come out again. Now, the land is healed – you have survived the winter. The entire ecosystem is restored and in bloom. It all seemed to have happened in a second. 

But there’s a new feeling present as well. Unbelievable; isn’t this what I’ve been waiting for!? Why does it feel like all of this can keep going even without my presence? Why is it so difficult to leave the plans you’ve made behind? Why does it kind of feel like an old sweater I’ve outgrown? The real question was whether I’m going to settle in and myself cosy there, or whether I’m turning to the Lord to ask Him ‘where to next?’.

Proverbs 16:9 (TPT): “Within your heart, you can make plans for your future, but the Lord chooses the steps you take to get there.” 

AND A TIME FOR TRAVELLING SOMEWHERE NEW

But you sense it’s time to move. You even make peace with that it won’t necessarily be towards greener pastures right away. Taking it all in for one last time, you start walking in the next direction.

Quite as I expected, I felt God call me into a new unfamiliar place. I felt Him call me to follow Him like a shadow. I felt Him ask me to leap like someone swinging on jungle ropes. In a conversation, I told a friend ‘I’m so tired already but I feel like He is telling me to keep going, keep moving forward’. In a book I’m reading, they talk about the expression “daily bread” and how everything needed for today is already within our reach. We get grace in today-sized chunks.We arrive at what we expected to be a castle, only to find an old abandoned city in the jungle. Well, why are we surprised? By now, I know He is in the business of making old things new.  

AND A TIME FOR SETTLING AND EVEN GARDENING

Finally, tired from the journey, your feet find new ground. You take in your surroundings and realized that there is (a lot of) work to be done. There are mouths to feed, a garden to prepare, and new sights to discover. 

The biggest question for me in the new area was: What now? Do I begin from scratch again? Did I fool myself to think I grew at all? The answer came, like it so often does, through a prophetic word from a friend: ‘I gave you gardening tools a while ago. Sharpen the tools I gave you; get ready for the work. You will be using those same ones again.’ Oh, what a relief it is when He speaks comforting words! 

Here, I start again –but I get to use the tools I’ve picked up along the way.

The journey so far was not in vain. And so, as the wise preacher said, there really was a time for everything. 

Jeremiah 33:10-11 (TPT)“This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying, “Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures forever.”