[Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-15]

We are creatures of time. We mark it with clocks and calendars plus we celebrate special seasons and times. We remember birthdays and anniversaries - and we remember losses and deaths. We set aside special times in our lives such as infancy, childhood, and adulthood. Things that are appropriate in one time are not deemed appropriate in others. You can suck your thumb when you are six months of age but unless you just hit your thumb with a hammer people expect that you won’t do that when you are thirty years old. We spend a portion of our years learning, then working and then retiring.

The preacher or teacher who is the unnamed author of these words we heard today from Ecclesiastes lines out some of the things that have been given their times. There is a time to pla…