by Sarah Van Diest @SarahVanDiest

When I was a young, romantic, teenage girl, I learned to play the theme from Romeo and Juliet on the piano. A Time for Us echoed through our living room walls and out our windows many dreamy evenings. In my mind, there would someday be a beautiful, glorious time when love would enter my world and my life would never be the same. Until then, I would wait and dream, believing my life would begin on that wonderful day somewhere in the future.

Such naiveté makes me smile today.

Scripture tells us that there is a season for everything.

It says there is a time to live and a time to die, a time to dance and to mourn. It tells us there is a time for peace and for war. There is a time for everything. And, as we make our way through the years, we begin to see how true this is. Life is flush with beginnings and endings, and full of times.

What does that thought do in you? Does it bring you comfort to know this? Or does it produce anxiety? Do you feel more at home on this earth or less when you see life this way? How are you affected by this thought?

As students of the bible, we are accustomed to taking scripture and asking the how does this passage or truth affect me and my life questions. We try to apply God’s word to our experience and make sense of things through the perspectives we find in his Word. This is His creation we live in and on, after all. He made life. He made time. And, He made those very seasons through which we walk. It only makes sense to consult His Word on life.

So, what do we do with the idea that there is a time for everything?

The first thought flashing through my mind has to do with our finiteness. Our lingering on this earth, in this present state, is relatively quick, short. A time has been given to each man that he may be born, live, and one day die. His time is encapsulated by these bookends of birth and death. He cannot extend his time beyond what the Father has given him. “A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed” (Job 14:5).

The second thought I have has to do with the time in which each man is set to live his life. His lingering may be in the era we presently know, or he may have it before or after our current now. He may have even lived his life when Jesus had his earthly time. What a thing that would have been! Each man is given a time within the greater context of time, and none other. “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands” (Acts 17:26).

The third thought crashing through my mind at this moment is fused with awe. How can this be that the Father planned this all so well? How in the world did He do this? It’s remarkable! God planned when each and every person would do their lingering. Each man and each woman was given a time in which He wanted them to do their living. How extraordinary that is!

You are here right now, and not at any other moment in the fullness of time, for a reason.

He planned it this way. There is no sense in which I understand how He did this, but Acts 17:27 tells us why.

“God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

That’s it. That’s His reason why you don’t wear a toga to work. It’s why you don’t fly a one-manned pod that comes out of your briefcase. Why you can read and write. It’s why you’ve heard of Jesus, the Messiah, and why we say, “Father Abraham.” He placed you in your time so you would seek Him, perhaps reach out for Him, and find Him. One translation says “grope for him” as one would in the dark.

There is a time for everything, but there is a special time for each of us. And yes, it is a time when we will find love, but not the fickle, temperamental kind of love I dreamt of decades ago. The kind of love we find as we grope in the darkness of this life is an eternal, infinite love.

Rest in the knowledge of His good timing, my friend. He’s got you just when He wants you. As He does each of us.

Keeping in mind that God has you right when He wants you, if you could be transported to another time, when would your alter ego live? Since we’re writers, you know… We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Sarah Van Diest is a writer and editor. She’s the mother of two boys, stepmother to three more, and wife to David.

Sarah wrote God in the Dark as letters to a dear friend whose life was turning upside down. She’s done this for years for numerous friends and will continue to, Lord willing. It’s her gift to them. It’s hope written down.

When you are in the dark places of your life, Sarah Van Diest offers a companion for the path you are walking. You will find a voice of comfort and truth to call you back to the light, to help you see that you are never alone, never too far gone, and never unloved. This collection of 31 devotions doesn’t minimize the reality of your struggles, but rather points you to where God is—walking right alongside you. Receive this hope in the pain, God in the Dark.