This little article is about time and how it seems to change the older I get. There was a time (as a child) when time was a wall that stood between me and something I wanted very badly. “It’s going to take time”, my parents warned me as we drove off for Niagara Falls for our first family vacation. “So don’t go asking, are we there yet.”
“Is it TIME?”, my sisters and I would scream, begging that Christmas morning could finally begin. The last day of school, the start of baseball season, your drivers test, were all separated from you by this wall of time that could only be endured, and at great cost.
It’s not like that any more. Things are on me before I know it. There doesn’t seem to be enough time now. There are some days when every moment is scheduled for some purpose — a meeting, an appointment, an event, phone calls etc. You finish your day and sit for a minute. You remember your first cup of coffee that morning and how good it tasted and suddenly….it’s nine o’clock at night!! Where did all the time go?
I had an interesting drive home to Ohio this summer. (I’ve been making that trip since 1971. That is 41 years.) There is a favorite part of the drive for me just south of Fredonia on the NYS Thruway. It’s a valley with a stream running under both lanes of the highway. The trees are arranged just so, the hills are mowed giving a nice view of the stream. It’s the kind of place that’s just right for a picnic.
“Is this supposed to say something about God, Fr. Tim?” Yes. It is very simple. When God became a human being in Jesus, He entered into time. John calls it the “fullness of time”. Something was now different from every other time on earth.
What was it? Jesus tells us in his first recorded words of his public life, “the Kingdom of God is at hand.” It is here. Now. In this moment and every moment to follow, God is with us. Emmanuel.
You and I are in that time. The Kingdom is here. Let us walk in its light. Let us use the gift of time to spread the good news….The Eternal God has entered time to show us the way to live. And in living that way we might enter into that life that has no time, and we are forever young in Christ.
A Blessed Christmas Season to you.
Fr. Tim
Are you still Fa la la la la-ing?
I hope so.
