My Inspiration MY TIMES ARE IN YOUR HANDS
By William King | Email: kingwilliam189@gmail.com | image courtesy: science.howstuffworsk.com
Did you know your head ages faster than your feet? Scientists have confirmed. The higher up from the earth something is, the weaker the gravitational pull and the faster time moves. An implication of this is that we frequently put our trust in a frame of reference on time different from the one we experience.
ent timeline than we do - if timeline is even the right word. For God is not constrained by time. He is the Father of time (Genesis 1:1, Colossians 1:6). He is “the Ancienr of Days”(Daniel 7:9).
When the speed of God seems slow to us or when His timing doesn’t make sense, we must “not overlook this one For instance, the Global fact”: God-time is differPositioning System(GPS) we rely on to accurately and safely guide us as we pi- ent from man-time. God-time is relative to His purposes, which is His frame lot our cars, ships, planes and spaceships only works because it’s programmed, of reference. God, according to His wise purposes, makes everything beautiful based on Einstein’s theories of relativitiy, to compensate for the distance be- in its time. tween earth and space. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)This verse captures like no other both the mysterious nature Without those formulae, our computers and smartphones would soon get di- of our experience of time and the pictures God has placed within our frame of sastrously out of sync with the GPS satelites, which orbit in different time. reference to help us trust the wisdom of His timing. In designing us with the Stick with me; I am going somewhere with this. How we experience time de- eternity in our hearts, the “eternal God” made us known to Him (Deuteronopends on our frame of reference. In fact, sometimes it’s critically important my 33:27). that we trust another framing more than our own. In limiting the scope of our perspecFor Christians, this concept is nothing tive and comprehension, He also new. Over three millenia ago, Moses made us to fundamentally trust Him wrote, “A thousand years in Your sight and not ourselves(Proverbs 3:5-6). are but as yesterday is when it’s past, or as When His time had come (John 12:23), Jesus obeyed His This is how He means for us to know a watch in the night”(Psalm 90:4). Some Him: “I am God and there is no other; two millenia ago, Peter wrote, “Do not Father to the point of death. As His followers, we also wait. I am God and there is no one like Me” overlook this one fact, beloved, that with (Isaiah 46:9). the Lord one day is a thousand years and We wait for the Father to “send the Christ appointed” (Acts a thousand years as one day” (2Peter 3:8). 3:20). As we wait, two thousand years later (or two God- One clear way He reveals the wisdom of His purposes is how He has creatIn other words, time in God’s eyes moves days) we helped each other remember (2Peter 3:9) ed, in our frame of reference, “a time at different speeds from time in our ours. for every matter under heaven (EcIn the life of faith, it’s critically important clesiastes 3:1-4). The Hebrew word that we learn to rely on God’s timing. In translated “beautiful” means approthe life of faith, it’s critically important that we learn to rely on God’s timing. priate, fitting, right. God’s “invisible attributes” can be “clearly perceived” in Learning to trust God’s timing is not easy, to say the least. This is partly due to the created order we observe. our sin. They reveal the wisdom of His purposes - a wisdom far beyond ours. God inIt’s also because trusting a frame of reference different from ours is, by defi- tends them to teach us that His “beautiful” timing can be trusted, even when nition, counterintuitive. Since we can’t calculate God’s time, His timing often we don’t understand it. God did not merely leave us to deduce His character doesn’t make sense to us. That’s why after Peter described one God - day as and wisdom from nature (Galatians 4:4). being like a thousand years for us, he went on to say, “The Lord is not slow... as some count slowness”(2Peter 3:9). In Jesus, the Creator of all stepped into terrestial time into our frame of reference (John 1:2). In fully human form, He dwelt among us, “directly revealing The “some” he referred to were “scoffers” who mocked Christians’ hope in the the divine attributes with a “glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of return of Christ (2Peter 3:3-4). The truth is that all of us fit into the “some” grace and truth” (John 1:14). category. I don’t mean as scoffers, but as children of God painfully perplexed by our heavenly Father’s apparent slowness. While here, He performed many signs and wonders and proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the We cry out, “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1), wondering when He will finally gospel” (Mark 1). As He did so, He displayed the marvellous wisdom of the fulfill some promise to which we’re clinging. So, Peter exhorts us, the “beloved” timing of God, often in ways that surprised His followers. of God. Someone who has created such a thing as light speed and who knows what’s happening in every part of a universe spanning some ninety-three bil- When His time had come (John 12:23), Jesus obeyed His Father to the point lion light-years across, is clearly not slow. of death. As His followers, we also wait. We wait for the Father to “send the Christ appointed” (Acts 3:20). As we wait, two thousand years later (or two It’s also clear, however, that such a being as God operates on a very differ- God-days) we helped each other remember (2Peter 3:9)
TT 149 | April 19th - April 25th | 2022
