Ecclesiastes 3:5
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
3:6
A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away.

When I was younger, I couldn’t understand the book of Ecclesiastes at all, and these verses were particularly hard to grasp. Now I do in a deep and personal way. Understanding it comes at a high cost, and the value of that understanding is priceless. It cannot be given and must be bought with one’s own tears.

A time to shun embraces? The King James version says this part better as a time to refrain from embracing. I couldn’t imagine loving someone deeply and being required to refrain from embracing. That seemed so wrong to me. Yet this is where I am today. I have held out my arms to embrace a person who is as silent and remote as a stone wall that cannot be scaled. Continuing to attempt to embrace will only hurt me at this point. It is time to shun or refrain from embraces.

A time to give up as lost? With God all things are possible, aren’t they? And yet God also says there is a time to give up as lost. What I had with Dan is lost. God could make something new. What we had is lost though and cannot be restored to its previous state. I don’t like it, and I accept it as reality. I still have hope in Christ, hope for happiness in my life. I have let go of hope that what was can still be. It is finished.