Time Flies

“For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:4 & 12

It is really hard to believe that it has been a year since my husband and I sold nearly all of our possessions, said goodbye to family and dear friends and made a run for the border to get a fresh start and make a new home in Kansas. Time flies for sure. Time can be both a friend and an enemy depending on what is happening in life and it seems that the older we get the faster time flies. Have you ever noticed that time goes faster when you are content with life and doing something you are passionate about or that it drags when things aren’t going so well?

Psalm 90 is a prayer about the timelessness of God and the limitedness of man. Two passages provide us with this week’s reading. Verse 4 lets us know that God’s economy of time is quite different from that of ours. Imagine how fast time would have to go to fit 1000 years into a 24 hour time span or how much faster it would have to go to fit into a four hour night watch? We would never get anything done if we experienced time like God does and yet time can still get by us, leaving us wishing for more. More time to get stuff done, more time to spend with friends and family, more time to enjoy the beauty of the creation around us.

Then there is the other end of the time spectrum when we really wish it would go by a bit faster. Times like waiting at the Department of Motor Vehicles because we’ve forgotten to make an appointment. That the line and so time would go faster as we wait to buy something or ride our favorite amusement park ride. I am sure you can think of many more instances when time either drags its feet or flies.

In all of this we are supposed to come to the understanding that we humans are just blips – well loved and very valued – but just blips in the time spectrum of this planet. In light of that the Psalmist asked God to teach us how to make the most of whatever time we have. It’s about priorities isn’t it? It’s about working some, playing some, being alone some, being with others some, be creative some and enjoying creation some. It is about loving some, forgiving some, being patient, grace filled and courageous some. It’s about spending time with the One who made us and who we will spend all of eternity with some day. It is about using what precious little time (whether is it flying or dragging) we have to be our best selves and to make the lives of those around us better.

This week number your days aright – cause time flies, and there is much to do.

A Prayer
Father – How different our lives must look to you from your eternal perspective. Like the psalmist asked, so we ask that you teach us to number our days wisely giving the right things and people priority in our lives. May we recognize the limitedness of the life we have on this world and allow you to guide our steps and our work until that day – whenever that is – when we will see Your face and begin a life where time has no limits. In the name of Jesus, the keeper of the real time we pray – Amen.