Another year has come and gone and here we are in mid-January 2018. As the old saying goes, “Time marches on.” And so it does with quickened step, at least so it seems to me. Of course, time passes at the same rate, but it seems to me to pass more quickly as I age.

An inscription on a large clock in Switzerland reads:

When as a child I laughed and wept

Time crept.

When as a youth, I dreamed and talked,

Time walked.

When I became a full- grown man,

Time ran.

When older still I grew,

Time flew.

Soon I shall find in traveling on,

Time gone.

Nelson Price, Shadows We Run From

I’ve read that each year consists of 8,756 hours. Of that 8,756 hours 2,920 hours are spent sleeping. That leaves 5,836 hours to fill. The “nothing new under the sun” Book of Ecclesiastes observes that in the time we’re given “we’re born, we die; we cry, we laugh; we keep, we discard; we’re quiet, we speak; we love, we hate, we’re at war and we’re at peace, etc.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

There are a couple of ways of looking at what the old sage says about time. Either by time is meant that all of life’s events are predetermined and the various times of our life have been set by God, thus regulated. Or, since all of life’s happenings have been predetermined by God, there is therefore meaning and purpose in them. Or perhaps he’s not talking about time as ticks of the clock, but as occasions or happenings. (Carl Shultz, Evangelical Commentary On The Bible, p. 439.)

Well, however time is measured, by the tick of the clock, by the calendar in days, weeks, months and years, or occasions or happenings, it is reassuring to me to know that my times are in God’s hands (Psalm 31;15a).