Time, is there ever enough?

It had been a busy day and just before I snuggled down to sleep I put my little bedside radio on. I was hoping to catch a weather forecast. I lay and listened and then it was time for the Greenwich Time Signal, the ‘Pips,’ which mark the hour. I love the Pips, they sound just like they are described, a little ‘pip’ noise. There are five short pips that mark a five second count down to the hour and the sixth pip which is always longer and signals the new hour. I gather other countries also have something similar.

What a surprise! This time there were seven pips. I soon discovered that we had all be given a ‘leap second.’ Did you know you were recently blessed with an extra second? Just like in a leap year we gain an extra day, every so often we gain a leap second!

I listened to the news that followed and there was an explanation. It would seem that our precision atomic timing system doesn’t take into account that the turning of the earth and its movement around the sun are far from constant. As the Scripture says, ‘my times are in God’s hands’. If we didn’t get this extra second every so often the clocks would move ahead of God’s original design and the sun would eventually set at midday. In Genesis God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light and then God divided light from darkness and created day and night, evening and morning.

Sometimes it can feel that the accuracy of the clock and the mad progression of the days and seasons is like an enemy. Deadlines and work or family pressures can feel like they’re pursuing us. How many times have you heard people say “I haven’t got time,” or “I don’t know where the time has gone,” or even “but I’ve wasted so much time.”

God says He knows the plans He has for us, and that He has prepared good works for our hands to do. He created time and seasons and knows our beginning from our end - our getting up and our lying down. So if God has said all that He must understand our times very well. He must be able to help us, deliver us from our enemies and from the things that we feel pursue us, if we trust Him. I’m sure there’s enough time for Him to lead us, guide us and bring us to a greater knowledge of His unfailing love. We may have gained an extra second, but Father God is Lord of time. He has all the time in the world for us, and we have an eternity to spend with Him.

Prayer: Father God, thank You that my times are in Your hands. I confess I find life so busy some days it is too easy to lose my focus on You and Your perfect love for me. Please forgive me and let Your face shine on me. Thank You that You always have time for me. Amen.