“There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens” Ecclesiastes 3:1

Bonnie Thurston writes that she is probably not the only person who thinks of Pete Seeger’s tune (sung by The Byrds and by Judy Collins) when I encounter today’s Ecclesiastes reading. “Turn, turn, turn,” I hum as I write, remembering life has seasons, different times for different things, and the glorious promise of timelessness. Do we remember in an autumnal or winter season that God “made everything appropriate to its time?” That God planted timelessness in our hearts? It is fitting that our lives be filled with different things: birth, death, planting, harvesting, weeping, laughing, mourning, and dancing. Through life’s changes, we discover “the work which God has done” and are formed for eternity, made ready for the eternal present tense. Today’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus’ life had “seasons”: Nazareth family time; times of solitary prayer; time to call and teach disciples; time for wedding feasts; time for suffering, rejection, death; and time to be raised. By his resurrection, we have access to God’s timelessness, the eternal present tense that seeds such deep longing in our hearts and promises we will share Christ’s suffering and his resurrection. That resurrection has already begun in us when, amid life’s ephemeral events, we remain focused on the enduring and eternal.

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