Got The Time

As seen in the HEARTbeat and the Village Voice

Got the Time?

             Got the time?  Not a question you would hear in the Middle Ages or even in the 16 or 1700’s.  It wasn’t until the mid-1800’s did time start becoming important.  So, where did this phenomenon begin?  It began with the railroad.  Trains had a schedule and had to stick to them to avoid collisions!  A railroad worker’s watch was one of the finest and most accurate time pieces carried at the time.  Timex watches, built in the U.S. were one of the popular brands of the time.

At the turn of the century, watch brands like Citizen and Rolex were established.  The watch moved from being a tool to keep businesses running to precise time schedules to becoming a fashion piece.  Pocket watches were replaced with wrist watches.  As of today, there are an untold number of watch producers.  Even the power behind the watch, the wind mechanism, was initially replaced by self-winding to the present-day battery-powered and solar powered watches.  All these innovations surround a very simple concept – knowing the time.

Even though we have multiple ways to tell the time, from the wristwatch, the sun dial, the grandfather clock, and even the smart phone, do we really know what time it is?  Time is really a concept, isn’t it.  After all, some may think the earth rotates on its axis once in a 24-hour period, but that’s not the case.  To be accurate, the earth rotates one complete turn every 23 hours and 56-minute period.  Confusing?  How do we make up for these four minutes?  I won’t fully explain, but research “Leap Year” and you’ll get the answer.

One measure of time we do not know is God’s time.  Yes, God has His time, or should I say has a plan.  There is no way of measuring God’s time, but we do know it exists and only He knows what time it is!  Jesus was asked by the disciples when the events He talked about would happen, the end times.  He said, “"Watch out that no one deceives you.  For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ’, and will deceive many.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.”  He then told them two will be working in a field, one will be taken and one will be left.  He told them, “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.”  They of course wanted to know….the time!  Jesus then told them, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

We should be working, acting, studying, and praying as if today were our last day here on earth.  We do not know when our time is up, when God’s plan for our lives here culminates and He calls us home.

My initial question now bears more weight than one might think:  Got the time?