My Personal Journey With Ecclesiastes 3:11

BY ELDER LEONG KOK HO

I am a first-generation Christian.  I started going to church by joining the Youth Fellowship at the age of fifteen, and it was there that I learned to sing this song - “In His Time”.  Initially, I did not know that it was based on a verse in the Bible – Ecclesiastes 3:11.  The lyrics contain two stanzas - the first stanza starts with “In His Time” and the second stanza starts with “In Your Time”. 

In His time, in His time,

He makes all things beautiful in His time.

Lord, please show me every day, as You’re teaching me Your way,

That you do just what You say in Your time.

When I was younger, I was more interested in having a good time.  As I grew older and acquired the habit of reading different versions of the Scriptures, I began to understand the true meaning and intention of that particular verse.  Life is not about me.  It’s all about God!  He creates the seasons and the times. And life finds meaning and purpose in God; apart from Him, everything is meaningless! 

I enjoy reading the Chinese Bible (scripture translated to Chinese language).  The same verse in Ecclesiastes reads: “神造万物，各按其时成为美好” (CUV) gives a clearer translation, which is “God created everything. His creation was in accordance to His time & purpose and it became beautiful / good”.

This is not a liberal attempt to translate the bible according to my own human understanding or to force the scripture to mean what I wanted.  But it is a result of reading this part of the scripture text many times over the years, as the Holy Spirit reveals little by little. For that matter, the Scripture is really worth reading again and again, and in different languages!

As we grow older and acquired more experiences in life, the Scripture becomes more impactful to us as we respond to it the way God intended. As mentioned earlier, when I was younger, I was more focused on the “beautiful / good time”. Now that I am older, my focus and attention began to shift towards “God the Creator” who is the source of all things beautiful and wonderful.

The world claims to be knowledgeable, and yet our human marvel and knowledge creates more problems even as we attempt to solve humanity’s problems. The Creator knows the world better than us, human beings. If only we have learnt to trust God and submit to His plan and purpose for us. 

Today, whenever I sing “He makes all things beautiful in His time” my attention is no longer on the self but on God, the Creator!  Each time, as I get to the end of the song, the second last verse of Ecclesiastes always come to mind -  “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (12: 13). Truly, God makes all things (including you and me) when we finally learn to fear Him and keep His commandments!