If there is one thing we humans are subject to, it’s time.

Sunrise and sunset come at the appointed hour, Monday morning arrives whether we like it or not. If the cake is left in the oven too long it dries out or burns, and we get older as the years go by. Perhaps we are looking forward to some event like a family reunion  or a trip overseas, but then, in a week or a couple of months it will all be over. Nothing really good seems to last. Getting up in the morning and going to bed at night seem to take on a monotonous repetition.

Fortunately nothing really bad lasts either. The God of creation has given this world a time frame, and He knows the end from the beginning. The devil knows he has a short time in which to create as much havoc as possible on earth. (Revelation 12:12).

Throughout the Bible, time plays a major role. Exactly on the seventeenth day of  the second month in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened (Genesis 7:11). The Israelites trudged through the wilderness for exactly forty years. The prophet Daniel spoke of time, times and half a time (Daniel 12:7).

But it was King Solomon who really got serious about time. Chapter three of Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for everything – from planting seeds to loving, hating, war and peace.

We know Jesus’ ministry on earth lasted for three and a half years (time, times and half a time).  On one occasion he escaped from a crowd of people who wanted to seize him and probably stone him, simply because his time had not yet come (John 7:30). His time did come of course, and Jesus knew this when he said The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified (John 12:23).

God lives outside of time but  I can’t imagine living outside of time, can you? Yet this is exactly what Jesus has promised us. A spirit body that doesn’t decay, perfect health, the ability to travel from one place to another in an instant. No more spending time stuck in traffic or waiting at airports.  No more monotony, and we won’t get old. “ …in Your  presence there is fullness  of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

What a time to… look forward to!