In Light of Eternity

“Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” – Psalm 39:5

Time has its nerve. With calendars and clocks, datelines and deadlines who can ignore this intimidating giant? He knows nothing of rest, never tires and has the audacity to remind me that I’m running late. I wish I could boycott all expressions bearing his name: “Wait a minute,” “Just a second,” “from time to time,” “year in and year out.”

Scripture calls time out on this minute muncher. No longer must we view time as a measuring stick inexorably winding its way through history. This temporal beast is brought to its knees in light of eternity. Consider the following: “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4). “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (I Corinthians 15:53). “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (II Corinthians 4:17). “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (I John 2:17).

God, as the above verses give witness, consistently places the temporal next to the eternal. The purpose seems obvious; time is only a measuring device for the here and now. Eternity is what really counts. When that last grain of sand passes through the hourglass, it will mark the end of time and the beginning of eternity. What will history be, but His story? Will it really matter how many Big Macs were sold? Will the heavens shake because the Redskins lost the Super Bowl? Will anyone really care how many times Elizabeth Taylor was married, or what the Dow Jones Industrials closed at on that final day? “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (I Peter 3:10).

I don’t wish to mock time nor do I wish to be mocked by it. Time is important but only in light of using it for eternal purposes. That’s the way I see things.