“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
“…the appointed time has grown very short. … For the present form of this world is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:29, 31).
When we are young, we do not think of the precious commodity of time. We think that we have stores and stores of it. We believe that an endless supply simply awaits. Why do we think this? Because too often life seems to move so “slowly” when we are young. There is always something that we anxiously await. It seems like our next birthday or our next holiday or our next school break will never get here. It seems like we are always impatiently waiting for the day that we will finally be old enough to have our own bedroom or tall enough for the big kid bike or mature enough for the next thing our parents don’t think we are ready for yet. When we are young, we can find ourselves too frequently wishing away the time that we have because of something that we don’t yet have.
And yet as we age, we find ourselves having quite the opposite experience. We long for the days that have passed. We yearn for days that were simpler, happier, or better. We wish for the time when our health was better, our kids were younger, or our days were fuller. Time can be a funny thing. We can too often try to live in the future or dwell in the past, causing us to fail to cherish the present. After all, the “present” is the very “gift” that God continues to give.
Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that there are certain seasons through which we must pass. It reminds us in its own sing-song way that life in this world is never “stagnant.” There are changes that must be navigated, transitions that must be embraced, blessings that must be received, and losses that must be mourned. Though we may long for another time and space, it is only within that specific season that we are presently placed. And it is within that particular season that we must ask, “In light of God’s presence and promises to me in this present time, how shall I live?”
We do not want to waste what wisdom God wants to impart. We do not want to squander the gifts that have been given. We especially do not want to miss the window to see God’s will at work within our lives. A preacher by the name of Charles Spurgeon once reflected upon our topic in this way, “Time is short. Eternity is long. It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in the light of eternity.” So, where is God inviting you to life in the light of eternity? Where is God inviting you to see His blessings, to hear His calling, and to touch His presence in the blessings of the “PRESENT”?
May our God give you the assurance that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is [His] faithfulness. … The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:22-26). Let us therefore wait for the Lord in the present and receive what He shall bless us with from His gracious hand. And as we wait, we praise, we thank, we confess, we pray, for He is the one who is with us in every moment. Although you may not feel it, although you may not think it, and although at times you may not believe it, there is never a
moment that He is not right there beside you. There is never a moment that you are alone.
“…And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b).
