A Timely Contemplation

I once heard a story about a very eccentric fellow who had an apple orchard, and also raised pigs. It seems that he would pick up one pig at a time, hold him up and let the pig eat apples from the tree. A passerby found that to be quite curious, and remarked, “That looks awfully time consuming.” To which the farmer replied, “What’s time to a pig.”
Time is a very interesting and complex concept. Here is how Webster defines it. “The system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.” Now that is about as clear as mud. In fact it takes a lot of time to just read it, let alone understand it. At this time of year I often wonder. Are Christmas and New Year separated by seven days or by three hundred and fifty eight? I was told recently that if I had time to think about such things I had too much time on my hands.
Forgive my foolishness. It’s time to get to the point. While consulting the dictionary, I found it significant that there is a secondary definition. “Duration regarded as an aspect of the present life as distinct from the life to come or from eternity; finite duration.” That is a realistic definition we can grasp.
The Bible says, “God has made everything appropriate in its time…and has planted eternity in the hearts of men…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) The scriptures further remind us that the time to contemplate and prepare for eternity is NOW! Whether we measure time by looking backward or forward is of little consequence when thinking of eternity. What the Apostle Paul wrote nearly two thousand years ago remains timeless. “…Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.” (II Corinthians 6:2)

—Terry Morrison