The Passing of Time
In a few days the calendar will turn from the year 2010 to the year 2011.
The earth will have completed another trip around the sun and another year will be upon us. The passing of time from year to the next allows me to reflect on the subject of time and its passing.
The Bible doesn’t have a whole lot to say about time other than the passing of time is ultimately in the hands of God.
One of the things that the Bible does tell us is that God doesn’t necessarily see time as we do. The ninetieth Psalm is a hymn to God that says, “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night,” meaning that what seems a lengthy passing of time in the eyes of humanity is but a blink of the eyes to God.
In fact, the Bible uses two very different words for time. There is the word “chronos” which refers to linear time.
This is how human beings measure time, one o’clock, two o’clock, Monday, Tuesday, January, and February. The other word that the Bible uses to describe time is “kairos” which means God’s time. Scripture makes it very clear that humanity and God do not see time the same way.
The truth is that clocks, watches, calendars and day planners are all inventions of the human mind. These devices and the human mind only capture the smallest snapshots of time. Meanwhile, the infinite mind of God captures the whole portrait of all time.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped human beings from trying to put God on their time tables. The problem is that all too often human beings operate like microwave ovens wanting everything done in a hurry and God operates more like a slow cooker making sure everything is done well.
In fact, many have tried to pinpoint when God was going to bring the entire world to an end. Back in the 1840s there was pastor in Upstate New York by the name of Miller that sat down and did some calculations and decided the world was going to end in 1843.
Many people bought into Miller’s teaching and sold their belongings and prepared for the end. Best I can tell the world didn’t end then.
It also did not end in 1988. In that year, I received a book in the mail entitled, “88 Reasons the World Will End in ’88.”
To be perfectly honest, the books arrival made me a little angry because I didn’t receive the book until August or September and if the world had ended before then I wouldn’t have been ready.
Actually I would have been ready. The truth is that God’s time table is not mine nor anyone else’s for that matter. The more important question that we all must answer is the question of how we are going to spend the time that God has given us.
If we are in a relationship with God, if we have accepted Christ as our Savior, if we are striving to be the people we should be, then we are making and expeditious use of our time.
Ultimately time, in whatever form it takes, is a gift from God and it is a gift to be treasured.