“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…” Ecclesiastes 3:11(NIV)
As the old year draws nigh, we tend to chart our successes or failures by the definitive timelines set earlier. We also start looking for a sign of hope or plans of how we may usher in a new season in our lives. This kind of reflection was part of God’s creative plan found in Genesis 1:14 when God declared – “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years” (ESV).
God gave us days and years as a reminder of our natural timeline with every triumph and tribulation, marked for a sign and for a season as preparation for our eternal timeline. Natural versus eternal! As we begin making plans for the finite days and years ahead, we should also not be dismayed when plans do not go according to our timeline. Ecclesiastes 3:11 is sobering yet full of optimism as we prepare for 2024. God says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…”
Given that God has set eternity in our hearts, would you plan differently, or how would you measure progress by your spiritual timeline? The birth of Jesus showed us how to live in our natural timeline – He was born of a virgin with thirty years of preparation for three years of ministry. Yet, reconciling us to eternity was His greatest mission to secure our spiritual timeline.
If we search online #yourlifeinweeks and insert your birth date, it will signal how much of your natural timeline has elapsed on a ninety-year scale. Jesus, however, operated on a different scale, with eternity in mind. John 10:10 reminds us that He has a plan for our new year – “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”, NIV reads. One Bible commentary sums up “life” as an “abundance” of supply beyond the immediate possibility of use. Life has the future in its arms. Life propagates new life. Life has untold capacities about it – beauty, fragrance, strength, growth, variety, reproduction, resistance to death, continuity, and eternity. Remember, we were created with a timeline of eternity!
Read: Psalm 110:4; Titus 3:5-7
Bible Reading Guide: Proverbs 31:21-31; Revelation 21; Nehemiah 11:22-36; Nehemiah 12
