God Has Made Everything Beautiful in Its Time: Sermon for the Funeral of Carol Kuipers

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“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die … [God] has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a, 11).

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

The words of Ecclesiastes 3 are among the most famous in the Bible, often quoted, reproduced on various wall hangings, and inscribed on plaques. Adding just a few words, folk artist Pete Seeger turned the first eight verses of Ecclesiastes 3 into a hit song best known as it was recorded by “The Byrds.”

But as familiar as this passage is, there is confusion about its meaning. Some contend that Solomon here teaches that “it is wisdom to do the right thing at the right time,” suggesting that with the right timing and knowledge a person can make the most of his opportunities and lead a successful life. But as appealing as such an interpretation is in our humanistic age, it simply does not square with the text. None of us can choose when to be born; many of the events that bring us sorrow or joy are out of our hands.

Others conclude from the verses that “all the events of life are part of a fixed scheme; they happen to the human being, whether he wills them or not. Therefore, individual effort is abortive.”[i] But Solomon does not intend to squelch human effort. Much of Ecclesiastes is filled with advice how to live a productive life.

The best explanation is that here Solomon points to God’s control. Solomon is showing that everything is in God’s hands. And what comfort that brings! God is, in the words of one commentator, “the Governor of this world and the Former of history, who makes even that which is evil subservient to His plan.”[ii]  Rather than aborting human effort, this truth encourages us to follow God’s will as it is revealed in the Scriptures. As God’s children, we do what we can. Then we leave the outcome in His almighty hands. God controls everything. In His infinite wisdom and power, He fits everything into His eternal plan.

The preacher writes in Ecclesiastes 3:11a: “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. The Hebrew word (yapheh) translated as “beautiful” in our text means “right” or “fitting. By God’s power and wisdom, everything in this world, whether it appears bad or good to human eyes, is “beautiful” in its assigned place and will serve some useful purpose in God’s overall plan. This is a profound Old Testament expression of the fact that God works out everything for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

As God establishes the times and seasons in earthly life, the good times will have definite limits and thus are bound to disappoint when they end. But the bad times will also have strict boundaries and will end when the Lord wills. Perhaps that will happen now or soon, but for sure, such suffering will end when the believer is called from this life or when Jesus Christ returns in glory for His own. In the meantime, we have God’s promise that none of His children will be tempted beyond their strength (1 Corinthians 10:13). And that God will make sure a way of escape is always around the corner.

Only God knows the times and the seasons (Mark 13:32; Acts 1:7). Human beings know from experience that good periods and bad ones will come, but only God knows when they are to occur. God knows why and in what way each time is beautiful, but the future is off-limits to us mortals. God builds the faith and hope of His people by allowing us to experience times of suffering without knowing the duration or outcome (see Romans 5:1-5; 8:18-25; Hebrews 11:1; James 1:2-4). If people knew exactly when bad things were going to happen, they would go insane with anxiety before the time ever arrived. If the exact timing of good things were known, the ever-building excitement would inevitably crash in a heap of utter disappointment when the gift did not measure up to the expectation. God will always foil human plans and will keep His creatures guessing; at best, we can only react after the fact (Ecclesiastes 3:4). The mystery of the times and seasons does not call for analysis or calculation, but for faith and trust. As believers, we look forward to the ultimate time when all will be beautiful—and there will be nothing bad, only the good—in eternal life in the resurrection.

That’s important for us to remember today. Nothing is happenstance for us Christians. Nothing occurred to Carol until it first passed our Father’s heart. He sifted through it all and then decided what He would permit or send or discard. Our loving God knows what is best for us in accordance with His eternal plan. “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time.”

During her eighty-three years of life, Carol knew both the good times and the bad. There were the joys and struggles of marriage, raising three children, while juggling a career. Carol would proudly tell others that she was a nurse, a registered nurse. She enjoyed everything about nursing, especially working with the babies in the nursery. Then there were the ups and downs of farming and business ventures.

Carol and Gerrit enjoyed traveling together to places such as Alaska, the Panama Canal, the Holy Land, and Europe. They gathered often with family at Okoboji. And for 29 years, Carol and Gerrit left the cold Minnesota winters behind and spent their winters in Apache Junction, Arizona. One of the big surprises of Carol’s life happened in 2017. Following the unsealing of adoption records, Carol learned she had eight half-siblings whom she had the joy of meeting.

In recent years, Carol faced several health challenges. Such difficult times may drive us to despair or, as in Carol’s case, they can help to remind us of how helpless we are sometimes and, therefore, how utterly dependent we are on God’s love and power. It can help us to be more open to the working of the Holy Spirit, of being drawn closer to our heavenly Father in prayer.

Yet, our Lord started working on Carol’s heart long before that. The Holy Spirit came into her life when she was baptized as an infant at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Ft. Wayne, Indiana on August 13, 1939. She confessed that faith publicly in the rite of confirmation at St. Paul on May 1l, 1953. The Holy Spirit worked in her heart every time she read her Bible, heard God’s Word preached and taught, or received Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of her sins and the strengthening of her faith.

Carol was a faithful member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Jasper where she was active in Ladies Aid, Couples Club, Vacation Bible School, and cradle roll and served as Sunday School Superintendent.

God gives His children many blessings. The greatest blessing is that which God has already given to Carol—the gift of eternal life. Jesus made this possible by giving His life on the cross. He paid for all our failures and sins. He came back to life again, conquering death, our greatest enemy. Our resurrected Lord said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). Carol surely heard our Lord say to her on Saturday, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).

Now she awaits the resurrection, where Christ makes everything—even death! —beautiful in its time. He will awaken Carol and all who have fallen asleep in the Lord and He will raise our mortal bodies to be immortal, our perishable bodies will put on the imperishable, and He will take us with Him in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. So, we rejoice with Carol, even as we mourn.

Jesus has prepared a place for us. He will come back and take us with Him. You will be reunited with Carol. You shall see her again. The best is yet to come, as the writer to Ecclesiastes says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). To this we echo St. Paul, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!  Amen

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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[i] Victor E. Richert and A. Cohen, “Ecclesiastes,” in The Five Megilloth, edited by A. Cohen (London: Soncino, 1952), p. 123.

[ii] Franz Delitzsch, “The Book of Ecclesiastes,” translated by M.G. Easton in Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, Vol. 6 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), p. 257.