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.
Proverbs 3:11
I found myself thinking about this verse in Ecclesiastes. It is a well-known Scripture in missiology. Don Richardson, a missionary to the cannibalistic Sawi people in the hidden valleys of Borneo, made it the title of one of his books. In it, he describes what he had found out from the hurdles he had to overcome when he tried to present the gospel to this tribe – that God has hidden “redemptive analogies” in the religious culture of many tribes and nations that help them understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. To the Sawi people, who revered treachery and considered Judas a hero, it was the Peace Child – a child that was given to an enemy in war to be raised by them to “buy” peace. He used it to explain God’s incarnation in His Son Jesus Christ and why He was offered on the cross. The whole tribe came to Christ upon hearing that analogy.
But there is more to God putting eternity in man’s hearts than redemptive analogy.
The text means that God created us in His image as eternal beings. We are eternal because He is an eternal God.
Of course, that doesn’t apply to our bodies. Those are just suits made out of flesh and bones that carry our eternal part around. Unfortunately, those earth suits age and decay, and most senior citizens around us can attest to them being very temporary!
No. King Solomon is referring to our souls. That is the eternal part of us God created. Psalm 139 tells us that none of us is an accidental biological formation:
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16
That’s amazing. The God Who hung a universe into place that no human can ever measure or fully explore created every single human being. He knew beforehand that you and I would exist and had a creative design for all of us. And He placed eternity in our hearts when He formed us in our mothers’ wombs.
But what does that mean?
It means, first of all, that we have the ability to relate to, commune with, and love the invisible, eternal God Who made us. Sin blocks that ability. Repentance followed by regeneration restores it. God made us to be heavenly-minded. That sets us apart from any other mammal. They have flesh, bones, blood, and organs like we do but they don’t have eternity in their hearts. That is a strong argument against evolution theory – it is impossible for eternity-minded beings to have spontaneously evolved from beings that were not eternity-minded!
Secondly, it means that our souls will live forever. We were thoughts in God’s mind before we were born. Then, His thoughts became a reality as we were born. And after our death, the souls He created will live on. His desire is that they live with Him in heaven. The consequence of having heard and rejected the gospel that makes this possible is that we live on in hell. Perhaps that is why James 4:5 says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.” James is talking about friendship with the world being enmity with God. If we make the material world our first love, we miss the capacity for eternal life God has placed within us.
The amazing truth that God has put eternity into our hearts means that a Christian’s sole pursuits are the love of our eternal God and the journey toward heaven where we are in His presence forever. Nothing else matters. This earth is temporary. Our bodies are on the road to decay and will return to dust. Why put all our energy into physical health and worldly comfort at the expense of the growth of God’s eternity within us?
The fact that God preplanned my existence is already almost too marvelous to comprehend. The fact that He ordained every day of my life to be the unfolding of His design concept humbles me even more. It makes me understand that every flaw I have (and I have many) is no accident but part of His preplanned work in progress. And the knowledge that He placed me on this earth to be on a journey toward eternity in His presence makes me want to shed everything that hinders that journey and ensure that He is uppermost in every part of my life – inside and out.
Perhaps you struggle with a sense of purpose. Perhaps you are frustrated about your shortcomings or your decaying body. Perhaps you fear death. Know that God pre-planned you and that you are a painting in progress – a complete idea in His head but still being formed on canvas. And take heart that the Master will complete that painting. Its unveiling will be in heaven where all the foretastes of eternity will become a way of life.
Be encouraged. Eternity is in your heart. Don’t squelch it – embrace it, feed it, live in it, and allow it to let you look forward to your death as the unveiling of God’s canvas.
As you celebrate Labor this weekend, let us be reminded that the greatest labor we can engage in is the pursuit of the eternity God placed into our hearts.