Ecclesiastes 3:1 – “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted…”
Webster defines “time” as “…the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues.”
Our world is very conscious about time. We work overtime. We want time off. We punch a time clock. We waste time. We run out of time. We never take the time to do the things we want to do. We’re on time. We need more time. We never have enough time.
The Capitalist will say, “Time is money!” The fatalist will declare, “Time is everything!”
Solomon declared, “…a time to every purpose under heaven.” The emphasis should be on the phrase “…under heaven.” Time is relevant for us only between conception and the grave. Beyond these two boundaries, time does not exist. On either side of these two boundaries there is only eternity.
Consider two extreme statements about time. Time is nothing. Time is everything.
Time is nothing to God. The apostle Peter said, “…one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The artist depicts God as an aging grandfather with long white beard. This image suggests that God is affected by time. This image of God is not true. God is ageless. He is not wearied nor enfeebled by the passing of years. God first set the pendulum of time in motion “…in the beginning,” and He will still its course “in the end.” But He is from everlasting to everlasting. He does not die. Time is nothing to God.
Time is nothing to those who have died in Christ and now live with Him in heaven. In the “…Father’s house…” God’s redeemed people will exist in the same eternal state as God does. Eternal life begins at the moment of salvation. Physical death is not an end of being but a transition to life eternal. All the saints of God who have gone before are even now enjoying the presence of Christ. All our loved ones who have died in Christ have escaped the world of the flesh with all its sorrows and limitations. There are no calendars in heaven to tell its residents that time is about to expire because there is no time there. There is no night there because Jesus is the light of God’s capitol city. The eternal residents of heaven know only happiness and bliss forever.
(TO BE CONTINUED)