The Many Faces of Time

Someone recently asked me if I collected clocks. The reason for her question came from seeing six clocks scattered around my living room. My answer was “No, it just looks like it.” Actually, only one of these time-measurers lets me know what time it is. The rest sit around looking decorative, but are silent as the grave. 

As I wrote this post title, the images of the “baby” new year and old “Father Time”  representing the just-finished year both came to mind. We’re already at the half-way make of January—hard to believe, huh? I look at the month already past and I’m not particularly happy with the way I’ve used the time those days represent.

There is a song about time being a healer. And of course, the wise old "Preacher" who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament listed all sorts of “times.”  In chapter 3, verses 2-8, he lists fourteen sets of opposing actions, e.g. “a time to be born and a time to die,” and he prefaces it in verse 1 by saying, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

Since this book was purportedly written by King Solomon, the wisest man ever to live, how can I argue with his statement that there is a time for everything. That means I should not be whining about not having enough time to do this or that. After all, God gives each of us 24 hours in a day in which to choose how to spend them.

I was reminded by something I read earlier this week that “each day is an unrepeatable gift.” I have the freedom to choose how I spend the gift of that day’s time, but I can't "do" it over. Obviously, none of us know when our time on earth will end and as I am now set squarely in the middle of the senior citizen age bracket, mortality becomes more and more a thing to contemplate.

Consequently, Scripture verses having to do with “redeeming the time” and “teach us to number our days” are more meaningful to me now than they probably were 20 years ago. At the end of the day, I want to agree with the “Preacher” who states at the close of his book, after trying out all the experiences his world had to offer, “…here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Eccles. 12:13)