Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear people.

It’s been a full day—following a full day yesterday—which I capped off last evening with a round of night skiing. I was able to pull that off along with a friend. We’ve talked about getting together on the snow all season—and finally did it last night. We had a great time.

Lots more work is stacking up on my plate again. For a while it was looking a little slack. Tomorrow morning a fellow will come to have me slice up his Incense Cedar logs.

Try to have a good night.

Love, Dad/Ray.

I’m reminded of those famous words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). The big problem is that we humans are not good at knowing what time it is.

Time is a stubborn and mysterious commodity. It waits for no one. It just keeps going at its own steady pace no matter what anyone or anything does or doesn’t do. It can never be altered or reclaimed. And, in spite of the many add-ons people assign to it, everyone, rich or poor, wise or foolish, saint or sinner, or whatever, is given the exact same amount of it—to the very second—24 hours per day. Time is so stubborn that man, with all his sophisticated science and technology, has still not been able to come up with a real working TIME MACHINE.

Everyone has their own time line—when they begin and when they end. David reflected on that in Psalm 31: “But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:14-15). Good word, David! I agree. After all, if He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, knowing the future as well as He knows the present and the past—and if He is the One Who chooses “the appointed time” for things to happen according to His will, including a time of judgment, why would I resist doing my utmost to please Him and partner with Him? I think I have just described what could be called a humble fear of the Lord.