Times

Times of Trouble Bring Rays of Joy, Part 1

Let’s explore the meaning of the title of my book.

Times: King Solomon, the wisest man in the world tells us,

For everything, there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven: (Ecclesiastes 3:1, ESV)

a time to be born, and a time to die;

We all have experienced these times. Births are a time of joy, deaths can be a time of shock and grief.

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted ;

When we plant flowers or vegetable plants or seeds, we anticipate how the flowers will appear and how the vegetable will taste. As we harvest them, we are thankful that we have the vegetables for our tables and our freezers.

a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

We may have times of intense anger, we can also have times when that anger is dissipated. We also have times where we ‘meltdown’ and then we get strong again.

a time to weep, and a time to laugh ;

We weep when we are sad or get hurt, we laugh when we are happy.

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

We mourn the loss of family and friends through death, moving, and sometimes, a difference of opinions. We dance when we are happy or when we are blessed.

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

We have times when we have to clear away our flower beds or our vegetable gardens from all the winter’s leavings. We also have times when we choose to gather stones for a display or for a rock garden.

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

From time to time, we are made aware of a cause that we can support. We may or may not be able to support that cause any longer. In our town, we have had good missions groups have to close their doors. For people, reasons to refrain from supporting a cause may be personal but valid.

a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

We have times where we have need of certain commodities, we retain them for a while, and then we have times where we have to dispose of those items that we no longer have need of.

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

In history, the pioneers and then the frontiersmen and women, tore apart what they had when they needed bandages for someone who was hurt. During the Great Depression and for a few decades following mothers and wives sewed most of their children’s clothes.

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

Sometimes, we have to learn when to keep silent and when we can speak.

a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

In our world, we have times of different emotions. God’s word tells us to love the sinner but hate the sin. In our world, we have had times of war, presently we still do. Yet, we yearn for peace. Peace, true peace, will not come until the Prince of Peace comes to live among us.