davidbowerkingwood

Does Tempus Really Fugit?

In his infinite wisdom, God lightly references many things in the Bible which are totally beyond my understanding. One example is found in 2 Peter 3:8 where it is written:

“⁸ But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

While I may not forget that verse, I surely don’t understand it! This, however, is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my failing to understand things God has revealed to his children. From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 there is hardly a page that does not reference something about God and his holy will that I cannot understand.

There are two verses in Proverbs 3:5-6 which provide some solace:

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
⁶ Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.

Those verses provide advice I can not only understand, but verses in which I can rejoice and attempt to obey! (In all honesty, I have found myself occasionally trying to understand that which is beyond my understanding.)

Time as we Know it, is Unique to Us

A year, a month, a week or a day is something to which we can all relate; we all have a sense of what that means and how it impacts our lives. What is of particular interest to me, is the unique nature of those terms and how they relate to only one place in the universe, the planet Earth in the Solar System.

Those measurements of time rely on the speed of rotation of the Earth, (which at 66,615 MPH, happens to be the third fastest rotational speed in the Solar System,) as well as the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. No other planet in our solar system has the same rotational speed and orbit; while it takes Earth only 365 days to complete one year, one Pluto year would take Pluto 248 Earth years to circumnavigate the Sun!

1 AU (Astronomical Unit) = 92,955,807 Miles

Meditation on that small portion of the universe visible to mankind is very humbling and it helps me realize how limited my experience, regarding God’s creation, has been and can ever be during the years of my mortality.

In my own, very finite, mortal life of 89 years, I have observed the changes in my perception of life and time which have developed over the years. I have written more on this in an essay “A Surprising Discovery.“

Changes in Perspective

As a child, my notion of the passage of time was vastly different from what it is now as an old man; everything seemed to go slower and take longer. As a young adult, one could easily be lulled into the notion that things would stay the same for a truly extended period of time. The way things were would hang around for an undetermined amount of time, there was little or no thought of getting old!

As I grew older, I began to realize that changes were coming much faster than I had anticipated; and as more time passed, I began to realize that time was flying by; “Tempus Fugit” (time flies) took on a whole new significance!

When it got to the point I could look back on the birth of a child, watch the child grow into an adult, get married, have children, watch the children grow up, marry and have children making the original child a grandparent and then having that grandparent die; I was deeply impacted by the fleeting nature of time and the brevity of mortal life!

Now, as I look at a young person, it is easy for me to see the transience of their situation; it is easy to imagine the passage of years and the changes time will inevitably bring to them. While a young person can more easily live in the moment, I am now finding it close to impossible to isolate the moment from the past and the future.

Life in Review

Looking back over my life, I realize how blessed I have been by the Lord. I have written a seven-part series on my early life starting with an essay called, “Once Upon a Time, I was a Little Boy.” By God’s grace, I was raised in a home filled with born again Christians who made their faith a major part of their lives. To the best of my knowledge, I received Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was around four years old, I was baptized when I was twelve and cannot remember a time when I didn’t know and love the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.

I did not begin a serious study of the Bible until after I was married to my beloved wife, Adele; together, we began to discover the vast wisdom of God as revealed in the pages of the Bible. By God’s grace, we were both filled with a great desire to study God’s word and began to grow in our faith.

The Bible revealed to us the true nature of our being, we were created in God’s image as eternal, spirit beings who would occupy a mortal body for a brief period of time. Having been created in God’s image, we exist outside of God’s physical creation and the time restraints it imposes which answers the question, “How Much Time do You Have Left;” you have no limit to your time, you are eternal, created in God’s image!

While it pleased our Creator to place us, for the moment, in temporary bodies of the clay of this earth, our eternal essence, which was breathed into those bodies, will never die and will, in fact, always exist in some form somewhere.

The Bible describes the history of God’s creation of man, man’s catastrophic failure, and God’s solution for man’s failure. We were told of a Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the eternal Son of God, who came to die on the cross for mankind’s sin; it revealed to us the importance of receiving Jesus Christ as our Savior and being born again by the power of God, the Holy Spirit.

Looking Ahead

The Bible tells us there is a new heaven and a new earth coming, in Revelation 21:1-4 it is written:

21 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. ² Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

The Bible does not specifically tell us how time will be reckoned in eternity; perhaps we will join our creator in seeing one day as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day!

After due reflection, yes, Tempus really does Fugit!