Ecclesiastes 3:11-14
God has Set Eternity in our Hearts
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
Solomon wrote about how God has put a yearning in our hearts about things of eternity...And God is of the eternal, so this very much relates to our thoughts and desires about Him...There are certain things we can experience in this earthly world, and certain things we cannot experience in this earthly world...Many things about God cannot be experienced while we are here on earth...Solomon seems to say that by God putting this desire of eternity in our hearts, this desire becomes a part of even our earthly thoughts off and on throughout our lives...We at time ponder on His eternity, because He has put these thoughts in our hearts...And in our hearts, we think about and seek God...Eternity is not of this world but of Another World...So man really cannot fathom and understand God's Plan from beginning to end...Because in the beginning we live on earth...But by us thinking these things of and about God, and us dwelling on the beauty and love in all these thoughts and things He created and has given us, we revere Him...And yet a void remains, despite these things around us...A void in the heart that can only be filled by these thoughts surrounding eternity and the eternal...And at times this void gives us a lonely feeling...
Solomon says, God has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end...I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live...That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God...I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it...And He has made everything beautiful in its time...God does it so that men will revere Him...
I think the St. Augustine and C. S. Lewis wrote about these things that very much relate to Solomon's thoughts on eternity and those desires in his heart...St. Augustine wrote that God has put in our hearts a restlessness for Him...St. Augustine wrote this about our Eternal LORD, "You have made us for Yourself, O LORD, and our heart is restless until it rests in You."...We are made to be with God forever...Not just one day or two days, or ten years, or when things are going good for us...We are to be with Him eternally...And in reading this from St. Augustine, we can see that we cannot experience God to help us satisfy this life or this restlessness, until we leave earth and are resting in Him in heaven...
C. S. Lewis knew that God gives us the desires we have...And we desire Something else, an eternal home...Thus Lewis wrote, "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists...A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food...A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water...Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex...If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for Another World...
These three men knew that this earthly world is not fully satisfying...We must realize that earth is not eternity...Earth and what is on earth, is not all there is...No matter what we do on earth, and even at and on our brightest moments and our happiest times, we still look and are looking for Something Next, we continue our seeking throughout our lives...There is Something Grander than what we have seen and done and experienced on earth...There is this Something Next, this Something Else, this Someone Else...Someone else awaits us in heaven, to take away this restlessness, this lonely void...