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Ecclesiastes 3 · Grade 5

Eternity in Our Hearts

Name Date

Read and Think

Chapter 3 contains one of the best-known poems in the Bible. For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. Fourteen pairs of opposites follow, covering all of life: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time for war, and a time for peace. The point is not that we choose these times, but that God sets them.

Verse 11 is the heart of the chapter: He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can't find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end. Humans live in time, but we sense there is more. We long for meaning that lasts beyond our short lives.

The Preacher concludes: whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him. Joy is God's gift: every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God. Seeing injustice, he trusts that God will judge the righteous and the wicked. In the New Testament, Paul writes, But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son (Galatians 4:4).

Show What You Know

  1. How many pairs of opposites are in the poem?

  2. Who sets life's times?

  3. Why has God done what He does?

  4. What can be added to what God does?

  5. What did God send when the fullness of the time came?

Crossword

42153

Across

  1. He has made everything ____ in its time
  2. a time to mourn, and a time to ____

Down

  1. that there is nothing better for them than to ____
  2. For everything there is a ____
  3. a time to ____

Think About It

  1. He has also set eternity in their hearts. How does longing for forever point people to God?

  2. There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. How can you tell which time it is in a conversation?

Memory Verse

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (WEB)

Copy It

Prayer

Dear God, thank You for the right time for everything. Help me . Amen.

Take It Home

For families: talk about these together.

  • Why can nothing in this world fully satisfy the human heart?
  • How does the poem of times help you face changes in your life?
  • What is one way you could live out this chapter this week?

Scripture: World English Bible, public domain, eBible.org. © 2026 The Daily Rooted. Free to print and copy for church and home use; not for resale. Original line art.