Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-13.
Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, the author wrestles with big, existential questions like, “What is the meaning of life? What is the point of all that humans do and experience on earth?” And here, in our passage, “Is there any order to the passage of time?” The author is a poet, so every word of this passage is carefully selected and ordered to illustrate for us the answer to that question.
In verses 1-8 he describes 24 experiences familiar to us as humans, ones which we tend to place in a hierarchy, assigning some meaning or value, either positive or negative. The author merely observes them without judgment: “For everything there is a season.” However, in the careful ordering of his words, the poet reveals the truth that there is, within God’s creation, a careful ordering of the seasons: the human experience begins with birth and will end with peace. Their counterparts, death and war, will get neither the first nor the last word.
On this New Year’s Day, as you reflect on the seasons of your life thus far and your hopes for 2025, see if you can look upon them with the eyes of the poet: cast no judgment upon yourself if your current season of life looks different from your peers’; if you are in a season of joy, delight in that good gift; if you are in a season of hardship, know that it is temporary; and find hope in the truth that in every season, throughout all time, God is at work bringing about the final word of peace on earth.
Pray
Eternal God, today as we mark the ending of one year and the beginning of a new one, remind us that you keep all our goings out and our comings in. Grant us rest in the hope that you have placed a sense of order into this world that at times feels random, and that all your works lead us further on the road toward peace. Amen.
Rev. Caitlyn Zold
Campus Minister, UKirk Davidson
Words for Waiting 