1 For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.
9 What do people really get for all their hard work?
10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.
13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
14 And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him.
15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.
16 I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt!
17 I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”
18 I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals.
19 For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless!
20 Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.
21 For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth?
22 So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is why we are here! No one will bring us back from death to enjoy life after we die.
You would be hard pressed to find more beautiful words than the words written in verses 1 to 8. Three lessons can be learned.
- Life is varied. Life has laughter and life has tears. Sometimes we embrace. Sometimes we turn away. Each day is a new journey.
- Life is cyclical. We are born and we die. We plant and we harvest. We face good days and not so good days.
- Truth is paradox. Death makes life more meaningful and urgent. War makes peace more desirable. God takes the bad and makes it good.
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