TIME FLIES

TIME FLIES

 

Well, I bet you’re saying that’s sure a novel title for a report! My father turned over the 91^st leaf of time on good ole Robbie Burns’ birthday (for those of you non-Scots, that was January 25). I remember Dad’s comment a dozen years ago, “I am 80+ years old and I have no idea how I got here.” I remember an intellectual dissertation by Robbie Zacharias, in which he confessed that “time” is one concept he does not comprehend. I am also reminded a favourite prayer line of my Dad: “Lord, please remind us that life is short but eternity is long.”

 

Another man of considerable experience and wisdom put it this way: “Time is like a roll of TP. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes!”

 

On January 1, Ellen and I gave the year’s edition of “Our Daily Bread” to each of our staff here at Silver Oak School. Just like it were crafted for me (and likely you), our morning devotion (January 31) was entitled, TIME FLIES. If you are following the monthly version of ODB, you likely didn’t read these comments by David Roper.

 

Many metaphors are used in literature to describe life’s brevity. It is a dream, a swift runner, a mist, a puff of smoke, a shadow, a gesture I the air, a sentence written in the sand, a bird flying in one window of a house and out another. Another symbolic description was suggested by a friend of mine who said that the short dash between the dates of birth and death on tombstones represents the brief span of life.

 

When we were children, time loitered. But as we get closer to the end of our lives, time moves with increasing swiftness, like water swirling down a drain. In childhood we measured our age in small increments. “I’m 6½,” we would say, for it seemed to take so long to get older. Now we have no time for such childishness. Who claims to 63½?”

 

Ouch! For those who know me, that’s a little too personal for comfort!

 

And, an often distributed plaque states:

Only one life.

‘Twill soon be past.

Only what’s done for Christ

Will last.