THE BIG PICTURE

 November 5 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11

Here is a dilemma for you (as if you needed another one!). Psalm 90:10 says, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to might, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and wickedness; for soon it is gone and we fly away.” Yet, the Ecclesiastes verse says that God “has set eternity in their heart.” We are left to reconcile living forever with being on the earth for only 70 or 80 years. This really makes it difficult to define “a successful life”, as we might want to claim that accomplishment when our time on earth is over. We are aware of timeless forever in our soul, yet our days are “rush-rush, hurry-hurry” in trying to achieve something glorious and make our mark while we are here. 

​Hence, the second part of Ecclesiastes 3:11: “…no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end” (NKJV). No matter how hard we work at it, no one is a complete picture of anything in themselves. The part we play is unique and draws more or less attention from the world. Yet, even how much our input affects the world is relative in the eyes of God. It seems that Moses’ influence on the world would be more rewarded than, say, that of Onesimus. But no less than what Paul says in I Corinthians 12:23, “…those members of the body which we think as less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor…” 

​We are each just one more piece of the jigsaw puzzle of God’s beautiful plan. How important each piece is, is up to Him to judge. Let’s just all pray together that the Lord soon puts that last piece in place! 

Davy L. Troxel