Today's readings are Ecclesiastes 3.1-22 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Eccl.+3.1-22 ) and John 7.14-31 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=John+7.14-31 ).
There's a right time and a wrong time for everything. A time to plant, a time to harvest. A time to allow something to grow, a time to cut it off. About this time of the year I am often in a quandary. Various plants around my house need trimming, something which I dislike and am not very good at. But it needs to be done, so I will do it. How much? When? What's right? This blooms now, that blooms later, this will grow back this far, that will not grow back so far before I trim it again. And timing seems important. Like the typical unwise homeowner, I will go into the yard, clip here, trim there, generally make a mess of things, then let it go until later. Maybe it is improved, maybe not.
How unlike I am to God. He knows the time to plant. All around my neighborhood there are trees of different varieties, losing their special individual seeds at different times. There are plants from bulbs which multiply underground. There are flowers that go to seed at different times. Some drop their seeds, some of the seeds fly in the wind. There's a right time and way of doing everything. And our mighty Lord knows it all. In the parlance of the area where I live, we just "waller around" and try to do something. Sometimes it works. Our God does it all perfectly. He knows the times and seasons.
If God bestows this care on weeds growing in my yard, how much more will he bestow his care on his people, the pearl of great price he has sought and purchased? How much care will he lavish on us who are called according to his name? How much will he make everything work to his glory and our good? So next time you trim a plant, pick a flower, or pull up a weed, reflect on the love of God.
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