He has made everything 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 (ESV)
There is a song written by Linda Ball called *In His Time. You may recall that the lovely chorus goes like this: In His time, in His time, He makes all things beautiful, In His time. Her stanzas are also lovely—simple but meaningful:
Lord please show me everyday
As You’re teaching me Your way
That You do just what You say
In Your time
Lord my life to You I bring
May each song I have to sing
Be to You a lovely thing
In Your time
It has been one of God’s best gifts to me that He has allowed me to understand and comprehend the value of a daily focus in my life—and then allowed me to share it with so many others through a process of creating a personal mission statement for their lives.
Recently, He gave me another gift of understanding in the form of a simple plaque I discovered at a nursery I like to visit in Watsonville, California.
I’m going to make everything around me beautiful — that will be my life.
-Elsie de Wolfe
Interestingly, in her autobiography, Elsie de Wolfe (1859-1950) called herself a “rebel in an ugly world.” Her sensitivity to style and color was acute from childhood. I can relate!
The plaque rekindled once more a deep desire to beautify “everything around me” for the remaining years of my life. It once again validated my purpose in life—even from a very early age—that I was created to not only beautify my own life and surroundings but also the lives of others in such a way as to benefit, uplift and encourage.
Even though I may not know or understand all that God is doing in my own life or in the lives of those around me, I do know what He has designed for me to do. My prayer is that along with me everyone reading this post will recommit to fulfilling His purposes for their lives once more. Refresh all our hearts, O Lord. May our lives “Be to You a lovely thing, In Your time.”
*Linda Ball – In His Time Lyrics © Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publ., Cccm Music