All Things Beautiful

"He has made all things beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart , yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11

I attended my first ever Alcoholic's Anonymous meeting yesterday, and I have to say it was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever witnessed. A good friend told me she thought that it was something that everyone should experience in their lifetime, and I could not agree more! If you want to see Ecclesiastes 3:11 in real life, go to one!

The most common expression in that one hour long meeting was "I am not the person that I was." That's the power of Jesus right there folks! Forget the picture of righteousness that gets tied to "religious" people. If we want to see the beauty of Jesus, we might just need to be willing to admit our ugliness.

During the meeting, some expressed their appreciation for the toils in their lives that made them who they have become today. I think that so wonderfully reflects the second part of this verse. According to study Bible, "find out" in this verse comes from the Hebrew meaning "figure out or comprehend by study." The writer of Ecclesiastes recognizes in this verse that God gives him a heart to figure things out but also limits him in doing so. This resolve is what I saw yesterday-- beautiful people willing to resign to God's will in using their mistakes, regardless of how "sinful" they were, to remake them into a people that reflect his Son.