file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db941117.txt
-------------------------------------------------------




OUR DAILY BREAD                   Thursday, November 17, 1994
---------------

READ:  Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

               "THE BEAUTY OF LIFE"

      "He has made everything beautiful in
                    its time."

               - Ecclesiastes 3:11

Author and scientist Carl Sagan says that the material
world is the only reality.  If we accept this premise,
then nature has been cruel to us, giving us, as someone
has cynically phrased it, "the endowments of a god and
the career of an insect."

King Solomon declared in Ecclesiastes that from a purely
human standpoint everything is meaningless (1:2), but he
also considered God's view.  He observed the creative and
destructive cycle of our existence (3:1-8) and concluded
that everything is beautiful in its time (v. 11).  He knew
that when we see life from the perspective of eternity we
will see the beauty of God's ways.

But Solomon also realized that God hasn't given us the
answers to every question (v. 11).  He advised us to
accept life's good things with gratitude, and to face its
difficulties with faith, not despair.

Shirley De Jong, who at 58 knew she had terminal cancer,
followed this advice.  With her husband she enjoyed
doing what her strength permitted.  She looked back over
her life and spoke of the beauty of each stage.  She saw
her illness as the means by which God would soon take her
to heaven.

Real faith enables us to see that even a terminal illness
can be "beautiful in its time."

    -- Herbert Vander Lugt

 Lord, of the days that are left to me,
     I give them to Your hand;
 Take me and break me and mold me to
    The pattern You have planned.

    -- Snell

-------------------------------------
        THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
-------------------------------------
     The more a diamond is cut,
       the more it sparkles.

THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Galatians 1-3
---------------------------------------------------------
Our Daily Bread, Copyright 1994, used by permission of
Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49555, USA.
Written permission must be obtained from RBC for any
further posting or distribution.  RBC provides a variety
of Bible resources, which are free of charge.  RBC is not
funded by any group or denomination, and support comes
voluntarily from its Members and Friends.  Write for more
information, or call 1-800-598-7221.
----------------------------------------------------------