Beauty: a hard subject to put into words. A subject that is made even harder following the events in Boston – vivid reminders of the darkness, pain, and suffering in our world. But it is what is on my heart today.
One of my favorite verses is Ecclesiastes 3:11 – ‘He makes everything beautiful in His time.’ Finding beauty in life has always been important to me (and I would like to thank Pinterest for feeding this addiction).
I have often waited in unpleasant and painful seasons for God to breakthrough with His timing, and make everything beautiful. I have waited and watched for these breakthroughs so diligently that I missed the things God was doing in the in between – in the details and small things – the places where life actually happens.
‘HE MAKES everything beautiful in His time’
There is always beauty to be found in life, because the Lord is the Beautiful One. And besides His own beauty, He is audacious enough to create beauty out of broken ones.
‘He makes EVERYTHING beautiful in His time’
Often I have missed the beauty in the everyday that God has placed for me to find – like a treasure hunt – because I have been too focused on my ‘someday’ mentality or simply the stress of day-in-day-out living. The beauty is here today, whether it feels like it or not. God’s invitation is to find Him in everything. When we find Him, we find beauty in such unlikely ways and places.
‘He makes everything BEAUTIFUL in His time’
I am a seeker of beauty, this is an aspect to my artistic nature which is huge for me. If I cannot find any beauty, it feels as if my soul dies. Then, when beauty is found, regardless how small or seemingly insignificant, my soul comes alive again.
In true beauty, we see a glimpse of perfection, a hint of a much greater story, the momentary impression of something much bigger than us.
I know I am not alone in the search for beauty. We are designed to seek after the beautiful, the perfect. When the beautiful is hidden or cannot be found, we have a tendancy to try and create false perfection. This longing for beauty or perfection is innate – a quiet whispered reminder of God’s reality and presence. It is intended to draw us closer to Him, in the middle of this world’s ugliness.
‘He makes everything beautiful in HIS TIME’
His time. Some days it is just too hard to hold on to ‘someday’ and ‘in God’s perfect timing’ so distantly in the future. Without perhaps even realizing, distrust of God’s goodness settles over our dreams like dust. When my hope is so hinged on a future season, event, or breakthrough, I tend to forget about today. And then, in looking back, I am startled to find the beauty that I missed in that moment.
His time. Right now, in this moment – this is His time. Trust Him who makes all things beautiful.
