Thought for Today
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,
Genesis 3:8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,
John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"
Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
“The second [...] is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the caesium frequency, ΔνCs, the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium 133 atom, to be 9192631770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s−1” (en.wikipedia.org)
The word ‘time’ appears more than 500 times in the Bible. Time and the measurement of time are so ubiquitous in our lives that we often ‘lose track of time.’ In our own home, the only rooms without a clock are our closets. Between digital displays on some of our appliances and our various collection of clocks, some rooms have multiple measurements displayed at the same time . . . often showing different times.
As our societies have developed, especially since the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the evolution of modern science, the need for standardization of the measurement of time has led to that definition above involving the caesium frequency.
That definition, that standard only measures what I think of as objective time. All of the clocks in our home, digital or analog, only measure objective time. Seconds accrue into minutes; minutes accrue into hours; hours accrue into days; days accrue into years. Every tick of the antique clock next to my computer reminds me of the passage of objective time.
The Bible begins with “In the beginning . . .” Implicit in that is the idea that God was there before the beginning. Trying to even conceive what was before the beginning gives me a headache! My finite, temporal, created state cannot understand objective time and the idea of what preceded the beginning. But I worship a God who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. I have written previously that one of my favorite Bibles is the translation by James Moffatt, D.D., D.LITT., M.A. (OXON). In that translation, the holy name of God, given in Hebrew with the 4 consonants known as the Tetragrammaton, is rendered as the Eternal. We see that understanding also indicated in God’s answer to Moses’ question about whom Moses should tell the people had sent him, “God said to Moses, "Exodus 3:14 ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.'"
As a finite, temporal creature, however, I also experience subjective time. What do I mean by ‘subjective time’? Have you ever said about something, “It seems like only yesterday . . . “ There are those times and events so deeply engrained in our lives, so seared into our memories, that the passage of time is not relevant to their being remembered.
Even after all these years, I still remember the first time I held Greta’s hand. That is almost the only thing I remember about that first date. Many years have passed. Did I have any intimation of what was to follow? Could I have imagined the lifetime we have crafted together? Obviously not! But, I still remember that electric shock.
Our 2 children are now adults with (almost) adult children of their own. I still remember the first time I saw each of them. Times have changed. Technologies have evolved and advanced. The entire experiences of childbirth and to some degree child raising are now different. But, I still remember first seeing each of them ‘as though it was only yesterday.’
I do not remember the first time I attended church. I only vaguely remember the church of my youth. But, I remember the first time I began, many years later, to perceive my being called to serve God in ministry. I had enrolled in seminary merely to gain additional knowledge about our faith. But I remember that growing realization that God was calling me to do more “as though it was yesterday.” That too was an electric shock.
Objective time and subjective time are both equally meaningful and important in our lives. We don’t have devices to measure and record subjective time other than our fallible memories. Treasure your memories.
Stay safe, thank God for time, trust God,
Pastor Ray