By 
We’ve all heard the phrase “God’s timing is perfect”, or read the verse in Romans 8:28 that says, all things work together for good (ESV). Both of these ideas infer a waiting period. I would venture to say, not one of us likes to wait. We live in a culture of microwaves, Google, and express lanes. We like things fast and easy. Many of us are constantly in a hurry, moving on to the next item on our “to do” list. Not only do our lives move at a very fast pace; sometimes they are interrupted by illness, hardship, and suffering. This is when we find ourselves waiting for God’s healing, praying for God’s intervention, and hoping God will answer in the way we want Him to.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV) says, [God] has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Hmmm. I mean, really. Could you be a little clearer God? I think I have always thought eternity in our heart meant a longing for heaven and its perfection. When I read the rest of the verse, that doesn’t seem to make sense.
As many of you know, I am in a chaplain residency program at CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Hospital. I am half-way through the program and loving it. (Picture a smiley face here.) My husband and I took a weekend not long ago to go to Las Colinas and celebrate Valentine’s Day early. On the way home I began to ponder the meaning of Ecclesiastes 3:11, and decided to read it in different versions to see how various scholars had translated it.
The KJV was even more confusing than the ESV, translating eternity as world. It read: God has set the world in their heart. This make me think of Columbus and his desire to explore and discover the world—not at all what the verse is talking about. Then I looked at the NET translation: God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he has also placed ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives.
The footnote in the NET says the word translated “ignorance” is literally “darkness”; perhaps eternity or “the future”. They explain the meaning of the noun olam is debated. It may mean 1) “ignorance”; 2) time reference: (a) “eternity” or (b) “the future”; or (3) “knowledge” (less likely). They went on to present the different arguments for these options, and how many think the Hebrew is the defectively written form of olam which means “duration; eternity”, which is the most frequent approach among the English versions. The second view is that olam is not defectively written but is the noun elem which means “dark” (literal) or “ignorance; obscurity; secrecy” (figurative). Thus, the verse would mean that God has “obscured” man’s knowledge so that he cannot discover or comprehend God’s ways.
After reading the NET translation and its footnote, I suddenly saw the verse in a new light and was overcome with an awareness of the truth of what Solomon was saying about God’s activity in our lives, and in my life specifically over the past six months.
Five years ago I would never have told you I would be able to find so much joy and healing and peace as I minister to others here at the hospital. Five years ago I barely could breathe, much less picture a future for myself. It has been amazing to see God use the things I have experienced throughout my life to help me relate to others—from developing asthma at an early age, to the traumatic losses of my brother and daughter, and everything in between.
One of the verses I discovered a few years ago, as I was grieving the loss of our daughter, was Lamentations 3:26 (NET): It is good to wait patiently for deliverance from the LORD. I was exhausted from grieving and helping take care of my daughter’s four children. I desperately wanted God to deliver me from the pain and grief I was feeling. When I read this verse, I realized I was going to have to be very patient. The ESV says, wait quietly. I don’t know how quietly I waited; but I gained strength and comfort from the verse realizing it was “good” to wait, clinging to God’s word and trusting in His goodness and all that I knew to be true about Him.
I don’t know what you might be waiting on God to do; but I know without a doubt: It is good to wait patiently, and God will fit everything together beautifully in its appropriate time.
Kim Prothro
Kim fell in love with Jesus and studying God's word in the eighth grade. That eventually led to a dream of attending seminary which she did after her children were grown. She graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2013 with a Masters in Theology and was part of the original group of women who founded Womenary in 2008. She has been a past professor for Womenary and is currently the Director of Soul Care at Living Well Holistic Counseling and Wellness Center. Kim can be contacted at kim.prothro@gmail.com. 
