Swiftly Fly the Years…

Another day is ending with a glorious display. Most of us don’t ponder mathematical equations or physical principles when we think about sunsets or “time”. However, since our beginning, “time’s” mysteries and brevity have filled the minds of writers, poets and composers, prophets and preachers, philosophers and scientists— and especially old men!

God exists from everlasting to everlasting, but He created time! (Psalm 90:2-17) (Genesis 1) So, our “today” is where everlasting changes to everlasting… We exist at some strange, moving focal point in an infinity that extends from “now” into all of what we know as space-time dimensions and beyond into some other dimension!! Time puts limits on us as we moves in a linear fashion, relentlessly and uncontrollably forward until it falls into eternity.

As we age and rapidly advance toward our end, we realize that time will fail us. Youthful summers which lasted forever are now fleeting, and we easily relate to the wistful singing of “the Fiddler on the roof”. “I don’t remember growing older”…/ “Sunrise, sunset/ Sunrise, sunset/ Swiftly fly the years/ One season following another/Laden with happiness and tears.”

The Psalmist understood time’s limitations, that life is not always good to us, but that within this mixture of consequences and eventualities, there is peace and joy when life is lived in a relationship with God. “So, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.……Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us…”(Psalm 90:2-17)

Amidst the confusion and stresses of trying days, we might question God’s “steadfast love”, His “work”, and “glorious power” . But we will know that “the favor of the Lord our God is upon us” if we look at Christ and his work for us as he redeems our circumstances and our numbered days.