Sand Timers - What She Said Part 14 - Week 3 Day 6

TODAY'S TREASURE

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

Transcript

Sand Timers

Annalisa Smith, Guest Writer

Today’s Treasure

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

I teach small children, and one of the hardest things for them to truly understand, at least in the adult sense, is time. We show them clocks and talk about minutes. To make it more concrete, we use sand timers where colorful grains of sand make their way from one end of the sand timer to the other to show the steady progression of time. But even if one of these tots can parrot that it’s “2 o’clock,” it’s another thing entirely to try to get one’s shoes and coat on BY two o’clock. In one moment, young ones are rushing us past our too-adult tasks of washing dishes to play outside. But the next minute, on the way to play outside, abundant time is taken for them to examine an ant on the floor tiles on the way out the door. And that is not to say that the “adult” way is the right way to see time – there’s something to be said for slowing down to observe the ants. As I work with adults who are newer in teaching young children, I encourage them to respect play time as a story being told. There’s something beautiful about the slow world of a child’s play, which has such power to absorb them and turn time into the gift of wonder. 

So often in our adult lives, “time is of the essence” and “time is money.” We end up commodifying time, and indeed perhaps we need to when we are paid by the hour. But time is also a gift given from the hand of God. Somehow, God has molded it kindly into the shape human bodies need – weeks with 7 days and a day of rest, days of 24 hours with darkness at night. The moon and stars mark days and weeks – we have nights of sleep and days of work and play. We mark seasons and celebrations.

Gen 1:14

"And God said: 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.'" 

Children experience time differently than we do, and in much the same way, we experience time differently than God. He lives outside of time – he actually created it. In some ways, time rushes on too quickly to us – we can’t accomplish all we would like, so we have to postpone tasks until another day. It’s common to think of time as seasons, and we often comment that “it’s been a ‘busy season’ for our family.” The idea of “seasons” captures so well the way God has appointed the world to run along its course, for different types of weather to follow each other, just as different types of human activities happen in different phases of life… in fact, our expression “a busy season” may echo:

"For everything, there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1 

But most of the time, I can say I think of a season not as much as a gift with its own unique contours, like a fall that brings cooler weather and beautiful leaves, but rather as a period of time I can hopefully endure to get to the next season which may somehow be lighter. 

I wonder if this is a little like the experiences I have with young children – that they remind and remind and rush and rush, repeating: “I want breakfast. I need breakfast now. I’m hungry. Are you coming? I need a spoon!” They continue to clamor even as they can see us preparing breakfast, somehow unable to settle and know that it’s coming until it’s in their mouths. It seems they think we might have forgotten somewhere between stirring the oatmeal and giving it to them that they need food. Now, my slowness is a human limit, and it’s possible for me to forget or at least to be distracted from serving the oatmeal. But God does not have those same human limits. It may seem like He’s forgotten us when we hope and long for time to keep moving, for God’s promises to be seen, for his final victory over sin and death, for Him to right all the wrongs, or just when we long for the end of the school year, a full night of sleep, for retirement, for a visit with grandchildren. God is not slow, though it certainly feels like it, and he never forgets his promises. He’s already ‘stirring the oatmeal.’ 

Peter writes to the churches:

"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation." 2 Peter 3:9, 13-15a

Somehow, all this waiting is a gift of God’s patience to us. Somehow, the seasons of our lives are appointed by him in this broken world. Some things sure look slow and sure feel slow to us. But on God’s part, it is not slowness. It is patience. And in that, we can find peace to learn to travel at His speed.

LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT

In what ways do you find yourself impatient for time to speed ahead or uncertain of what time will bring? In what ways can you embrace the gift of time as one to be opened and used and enjoyed like a present rather than spent like a commodity? In what ways could you imitate the time-oblivious attitude of a child at play? 

PRAYER

Dear Father, on the one hand, I rush, and I never have enough time. On the other hand, it seems You are so slow to answer prayers, so slow to come back and put things right. Give me the gift of embracing time as being given from Your hand, and a sign of Your patience. Amen.