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Beauty?

            He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Everything? Everything? OK, maybe this means that He made everything beautiful that is beautiful. Excrement? Warthogs? Muffins that come out of the oven as hockey pucks? A decomposing body? Everything?

            Clearly, my questions have to do with aesthetic, visual (and possibly olfactory) beauty. That’s what we usually think of when we hear “beautiful.” I don’t know much about warthogs, but I suspect they have a beautiful place in the world, meaning that what they do within the ecosystem (at least when the ecosystem is working right) is a good thing. It might also be that - once a warthog decides you aren’t a monster, they might (or might not) decide that they want to be friendly.

Then, of course, we all know of someone who isn’t physically attractive but has a beautiful mind, spirit, soul, voice, or way with people (or animals.) We also know of people who look beautiful but are ugly in their minds, spirits, souls, etc. This is an obvious but necessary idea if we’re to look for beauty or understand this verse. Yes, He made everything in its time. Our not noticing doesn’t diminish the beauty He created. We know this - this is what Beauty and the Beast is
about.

What the teacher says next is almost as bizarre and proves the end of the verse. We can’t fathom how God put eternity in our hearts. And yet, I don’t notice any creature that is as obsessed with the future and the past as humans are. As strange as it may sound, the author of Ecclesiastes has hit on some things to keep in mind as we look for beauty and face life.

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