Time Is On God’s Side, & On The Believer’s

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.’ (2 Peter 3:8); ‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1); ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ (Genesis 1:1)

Time is the fourth dimension.  We live in 3-dimensional existence of planes (width, height, and length) with time being the movement of those dimension across those planes.  For example, to correctly plot the location of a satellite (or its ‘ephemeris’ data), one must have, in its relationship to Earth, the satellite’s longitude (width), latitude (length), altitude (height), and time.  All satellites (including ‘stationary’ or geosynchronous satellites) move and so all three positional dimensions change with the passage of time. 

The Earth’s position changes daily with it rotating on its axis, revolving around the Sun, the Solar System revolving around in the Milky Way Galaxy, and the Milky Way Galaxy moving away from the perceived center of the universe, so your position is changing right now as well, even though you’re sitting down reading this diatribe of a Word-of-the-Day.  (We’re moving at almost a million miles an hour and you’re not buckled in, so pray no one slams on the brakes.)

Time is relative to us, we measure time by incrementing one of Earth’s rotations on its axis (one day) into 24 segments (hours), then dividing that into 60 minutes, and then further by dividing 1 minute into 60 seconds.  We have also deduced that for every 365 rotations (days), the Earth revolves around the Sun once, giving us a year.  All of this gives us the analytical measurement of time on an Earthly scale, but again sometimes we sense time speeding up or slowing down based on our situations. 

Some things we want to keep time slow, but can’t; our children are now well into adulthood and creeping up to being ‘middle-aged’ – where did the time go?  I still think I’m 25 until I either look in the mirror or do something physical and then I remember (and feel like) I’m 61 (going on 80) – often for an extended period of time.  (Praise the Lord for Excedrin and hot showers.) So, we have the analytical measurement of time (fact) and our perception of time (feeling). 

Our perception of time, and how we measure it is linear and progressive; we live as time moves forward and despite our feelings of it slowing down or speeding up it is a consistent march forward.  We have a physical beginning (birth) and a physical end (death), and in between we have similar experiences (yet all unique to each of us).  Almost all go through life as children, then teenagers, then as young adults, then middle-aged adults, then seasoned citizens and along the way we have our careers, hobbies, many of us raise children then become empty nesters, and all should have a relationship with Jesus as their Savior. 

Put another way, while we see life like we see the world while driving, we see what is directly in front of us at that moment outside of the windshield.  We can look back to see where we were, and can somewhat anticipate what may happen in the very near future looking ahead (but that can change in an instant), but we can’t see way ahead, beyond the car in front of us or what’s on the other side of the Skyway Bridge as we go over it.

God’s perception of time is holistic; He is omnipresent in all times with all people who have lived, who are living, and who will come to life – at the same ‘time’.  Our Triune God (Father, Son, & Spirit) existed before ‘Time’, as when we analyze Genesis 1:1 we find that God had to exist prior to Creation in order to create the heavens and Earth.  In the scenario of us seeing time like we’re driving a car, God sees each of our lives as if He is looking at a road map; He sees our beginning, where we’re at now, and where we will be in completing our journey, all at the same time and all of it together.  To God the Creation, Jesus’ Earthly Ministry, the Tribulation, and Judgement is all happening now and has already happened at the same time to Him. 

We are given free will to choose Him, and He knows how we will choose and knows those who chose Him already.  God even knew who you would be and how you would live your life before you were born (Isaiah 49:1), before you were even in the womb.  God knows who will join Him for Eternity as He has already been there (and is there now).  However, we don’t know yet who will be there, except for those who have earnestly professed Faith in Christ.  We still need to continue to pursue the Great Commission to share the Gospel so that others may have the opportunity for Salvation as well. 

When will Jesus call His Bride, the body of Faithful believers, home to Him?  We don’t know, but God does, so don’t give up as for us it may be 1,000 years from now or it could be tomorrow.  Since we don’t know when Jesus is returning you need to share Jesus with someone, or make that decision for yourself, today – right now! Don’t put it off – we only have a limited amount of time, and time waits for no one (except for God Himself)!