The Importance of Time


God is the author of time. He invented it. There was a time when time was not. Then God created time and space. He ordered His creation in the span of six days and rested on the seventh. Thus the rhythm of our week is woven into the fabric of the world. God promised Noah that "while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease" (Genesis 8:22). God gives us a framework. There is a stability to life. We can count on time--year after year, month after month, day after day, hour after hour. This brings structure to our lives. Time becomes something that we order our lives around. The fourth commandment states: "Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God." Work and rest become a daily and weekly and yearly rhythm. Time is the beat to this rhythm.

The teacher in Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a time for everything:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace
Among the things listed here are things that ought not be--death, killing, weeping and war. We live in a world that is wrecked and everything is affected, even time. Now it is a struggle to keep up with it and at times it is taxing to keep to a schedule. Yet even in our fallen world, God rules over time and "in the fullness of time, God sent His son" to redeem us. Jesus came into time and space to make all things new. Now we are to use our time (and other's time) well, "redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16). Making the most of our time means making it on time to appointments. Punctuality (something I really need to work on) is a virtue that serves us well in life. It helps us not to miss important moments. It respects other people's valuable time, and punctuality honors God, the Author of time.

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