“There is a time for everything…” Ecclesiastes 3:3 (NIV)

Almost every one of us wears a watch, or at least keeps track of the time on our cell phones. We watch the time in our cars, on our computers at work, and set our alarm clocks every night before we go to bed. In fact, I would even bet most of us have at least one clock in every room in our house! We’re obsessed with knowing the time….

Saturday night, we turn our clocks back an hour, giving us an extra hour of sleep, or if you prefer, an extra hour to read, watch a movie, or whatever you want to do with it. Never mind that it makes up for that extra hour we lost in the spring which enabled us to have an extra hour of daylight. This is different, because we feel like we’ve gotten a gift!

What do you plan to do with your extra hour?

Or a better question…what would you do if you could turn your clocks back more than an hour and actually travel back in time? How far back would you turn them? Would it be days? Weeks? Or more?

One of the characters in Mitch Albom’s novel “The Timekeeper” tells of a young boy praying “please make it yesterday” so that his father would still be alive. Is that what you would want to do? Perhaps turn back your clocks to right before you got that phone call? Right before the doctor’s appointment? At least one day before a loved one died? Several days before? Would you want to use the time to try and change the outcome, or just tell them all the things you didn’t get the opportunity to say?

It’s a nice thought. A great idea, as a matter of fact. But that’s all it is. A thought; an idea.

Even if you could do that, time continues on, and we cannot stop it. You would still experience whatever it was that happened a few hours, or a few days or even weeks, after the clocks were turned back. The concept of changing the past to affect the future makes for an interesting book or movie plot, but in reality, we all know that is not possible. The Lord has a plan for each of us, and that plan will not be changed.

Although the Lord designed the concept of time to be measurable, time in eternity is not the same as time on earth. “…With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8) (NIV)

For now, our time is measured in earthly time. We count the hours and days and weeks, and turn the calendar pages each month. We cherish the extra time we’re given, and we mourn the time that is lost.

And for now we accept that extra hour we’re given by man, and wish it were more. And it will be on that one day when the Lord gives us the gift of eternity, time without end.