The mechanical clock was made to adjust time. It was designed for the working man to adjust time so that he could work from sunup to sundown. In fact, in March we will be adjusting our watches for Daylight Savings Time. We will be springing forward an hour to get more sunlight in a day.
It is also said that about the same time the mechanical clock was made, the hourglass or the sandglass was made. It was designed to measure a fixed time. With the sandglass, 60 seconds will always be 60 seconds, as will an hour always be an hour. With the hourglass, time is fixed.
More than not, we apply our lives to fixed time. This is the way Solomon described time in Ecclesiastes 3:1-13: Birth/death; plant/uproot; kill/heal; tear down/build; weep/laugh; mourn/dance; scatter stones/gather them; embrace/refrain; search/give up; keep/throw away; tear/mend; love/hate; war/peace.
We humans have tried to adjust time, change time, ignore time and even use time. Yet, there is one thing that we cannot change, and that is fixed time, which will run out for all of us. Ecclesiastes 3:2 reminds, “There is time to die.” Hebrews 9:27 states, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” Regardless of what we do with time, we all come to the same conclusion; we do not know how much time we have! The Bible tells us over and over that the time we have today is God’s gift, and there is no promise on how long it will last (James 4:13-14).
How much time do we have? When will our time be up? If the alarm clock of our life went off today would we be ready for Jesus? Time is a gift from God; let us use it wisely!
