Have you ever had a love/hate relationship with something? That is me every year at this time of the year.
I love the Friday night lights, starting of school, the changing colors, the cooler nights, wearing sweatshirts again, craft fairs, everything! Yet, I have a hatred for this time of the year. When I was 5, I had my first asthma attack while in a pile of leaves. The leaves wreak havoc on my lungs, as does the dust that is constantly being kicked in the air.
At times it seems that sorrow and joy intermingle in our lives, weaving themselves into the fabric that will reveal who we are. All we have to do is open Facebook and look at the newsfeed to see that this is true for us today. One post would be full of death and destruction and the one below it full of joy at new birth. It reminds me so much of what King Solomon said when he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes.
For those well versed in scripture, you’ll recognize this passage, but it seems so timely. In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon writes how there is a time for everything under Heaven. As he wraps up this section he begins with, “I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.” Solomon was seeing how each of us carry a burden, an illness much like my asthma, that affects our everyday lives. We all carry something. Solomon continues, though, with, “Yet, God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
God’s timing is perfect and the tapestry that He is weaving together is beautiful. We simply do not get to see the whole thing from this side of Heaven. It reminds me much of Vincent van Gogh’s painting “Starry Night” — mostly dark with a few bright spots, but when it is all finished it is a stunning painting. If van Gogh can create something so beautiful with so much darkness, we can only imagine what God will do.
So the next time you find yourself stretched between both sorrow and joy, I pray that you see God. I pray that you lean into His promises. He promises that He has made everything beautiful. I pray that as you feel stretched, that you can hear His voice calling you to Him.
