“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
We enter our third week pondering the book of Ecclesiastes written by The Teacher, a son of King David, and often identified as King Solomon. After opening with the startling statement that all of life is meaningless, the Teacher shares how he has used his wisdom to investigate life. He realizes the circles of life, the common themes that run through history that often feel like we are fated to repeat the errors of the past. Not only do dynamics like the seasons or the defining of days with night and light feel like being caught in a hamster’s wheel, a person’s hard efforts might be inherited by a fool who squanders all that has been worked for. Death comes to us all. But then at the end of chapter 2 the Teacher realizes that the satisfactions found in our lives is a great blessing regardless of whether we are remembered. Those famous lines at the beginning of chapter 3 offers hope as we realize we are not doomed to be stuck at any point as life keeps turning and perhaps as we turn our eyes to God things will get better.
The Teacher now realizes that each aspect of life has it’s own beauty in it’s own way. I do not know if microscopes were invented then to see the beauty that is too small for the human eye to see. Nor were there telescopes to understand the vastness of the universe and its beauty. My mother used to say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, said the little old lady as she kissed the cow.” Parents love and cherish differently abled children. Artists find beauty in amazing places.
Take a moment and think of five things that you find beautiful and cause your heart to say thanks to God. Lord, open our eyes today to see the beauty all around us and may it lead us to praise you.
On the Way to Wonder 