Do you know what God is painting? Ecclesiastes 3-4

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NASBStr)

 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

If you have ever watched an artist actually draw, paint or design a picture, you might have an understanding of the above verse.   As you watch them compose at the beginning you have little clarity of their strokes, color selection, angles and/or shadows.   It is only as you stay patient to the end that you see the full robust of their previous choices.   This seems to be Solomon's meaning of the above, in the context of God's work with mankind on the earth.   If you simply watch each stroke, by itself, it may make little sense.  Not having a mind like the Artist, we seldom understand each stroke, or shadow drawn into our lives.   He takes great pains with each line He draws, but since we are a fallen creature we must understand that God has a finished product we won't fully understand until the end.   The result of the fall is that God placed in our heart the beauty of being aware of the past and the future but not knowing what it actually means.   It is only the creature who is IN Christ who can fully comprehend.  Our human nature can't.   But, to him/her who has had the love of Christ shed into his/her heart, we have understanding of the hope that is in us.   Men of faith understand that all God made is good (Genesis 1) and all that has happened and will happen is within God's perfect plan (Romans 8:28).   Those without faith struggle to find meaning with the eternity placed into their heart.  It is only until we understand and have faith in the redemptive plan of God that we can appreciate each color and hue of the canvas of our lives.   God is busy painting a master picture for us and with us and to us.   When we have faith in Christ we see darkly what God is doing from the beginning from the end.  In the end we will see the master piece He has painted.  At that time we will discover that the painting is not for us, but for Him.   We are not the picture, we are the paint.