He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. —Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV
Nothing makes me long for heaven more than the pockets of suffering in my own life. It is the pain I cannot escape that makes me cry most desperately for Jesus and long most passionately for heaven. God has placed a longing for eternity in each of our hearts. Suffering is the tool He often uses to reveal it.
We have the sure promise that God makes everything beautiful in His time. We have no such promise that He will bring beauty from ashes in our time.
Relief from suffering may not come this week, this month, this year. It may not come in our lifetime, or even in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. But God is already at work to redeem what has been shattered.
Beauty is coming. It won’t be long now.
Make it Personal
How has God used suffering to make you long for heaven more?