TIME

TIME

Teach us to consider our own mortality so that we may live wisely. Psalm 90:12

My parents never believed in wasting time. The clocks in our home were always at least 15 minutes fast. So at twenty past the hour we would hear the call; come on children it is going for 8 o’clock which meant it was 7:15.

I don’t have time is probably more like I don’t want to. We all have the same amount, twenty- four hours in a day.

Life is punctuated by time, sunrise, sunset, the days of the week, the seasons. Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays and anniversaries are all part of the calendar of time.

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 3 records his take on time. For everything there is a season, for every activity under the sun: Birth death, killing and healing, planting and uprooting, weeping, laughing mourning.

GOD AND TIME

God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments, days and years. He lives above what we call our timeline. We have to leave point A behind to get to point B but God contains the whole line and sees it all. He has infinite attention to spare for all of us and is never in a hurry. On the other hand we see him using the gift of time to precisely unfold his plan for his creation. The world will see it as coincidence and we see it as divine intervention synchronized with utmost precision.

Ruth went to glean in the fields behind the reapers and it SO HAPPENED that she was in a strip that belonged to Boaz and appeared there just as he came out from Bethlehem.

Joseph was thrown into a dungeon by his brothers, JUST as some Egyptians were passing by who bought him for 30 pieces of silver and he became a ruler in Egypt and in turn saved the Israelite nation, which only consisted of around 70 people at the time.

David JUST HAPPENED to be taking lunch to his soldier brothers when he heard the Giant of Gath defy the ranks of Israel and their God.

In the FULLNESS OF TIME God sent forth his son into the world.

Jesus SO HAPPENED to be at the well when the outcast Samaritan woman came by to draw water.

Jesus SO HAPPENED to be in a mob of people when a women reached out and touched the hem of his garment.

GOD US AND TIME

Demands on our time can vary depending on our season of life and the responsibilities. As followers of Jesus, we might want to ask, what do you want me to do today because there is time for everything God wants you to do.

 God uses time to teach us what to do with all that we have been given.

God will strategically place us in the right place at the right time.

He orders our footsteps, not just at graduations and weddings.

God is setting up divine appointments all the time.

Jesus said in Mark 6:31come with me by yourselves and get some rest.