Out of Time

We’re are approaching the end of another year. It’s time to finish old projects, close out budgets, put away the old calendars, and get ready to start writing a new year in our planners and checkbooks. As we prepare for a “new” year, we set new goals, start new projects, and think ahead to what “will be.”

But, if you think about it, New Year’s Day will just be another day in a new week. The week actually begins on Sunday, regardless of when January first falls. We will go to sleep– possibly after midnight–and wake up just as we’ve done all the days of the past year, and all the days to come in the “new” year. Time is cyclical, as well as chronological. Time doesn’t go backward, but neither does it stop and “start over” when we complete a weekly cycle or at the end of a month, or year, or even a millennium. It just keeps repeating the natural cycles of day and night, moon cycles, and yearly orbits around the sun.

Yet, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are important reminders about the nature of Time. God created the cycles of time– days and weeks, months and years–even though He exists outside of the boundaries of time. And God created the world with a beginning, and an “end.” As humans, we exist within these boundaries. Our years have beginnings and ends; our lives here have a beginning and an end, as well, even if the rest of the world keeps cycling around our short time on this planet.

New Year’s Eve reminds us of our own mortality. We need to be aware of the brevity of life, and the value of our time. We will come to an end. We will “run out” of time. Our plans and actions need to be accomplished in the time we have left. We may see the dawn of the new year, and of the year after that– but we do not know the moments and days we have left in our earthly lives.

But New Year’s Day also reminds us that God has NO end! His mercies are new EVERY morning, every week, and every new year! New Year’s Day reminds us that we can break old cycles and start fresh. We can look forward, instead of always looking back at past mistakes and regrets. And we can rely on God to continue to sustain us through days and weeks and years as they come and go.

Someday, we will be enter eternity. Time will no longer limit us. There will be no deadlines or endings for our dreams and activities. We will never “run out” of time. And we will never face an end of our access to God’s goodness and His Presence.

That is true today, at the “end” of this year, and it will be equally true in a few days, in the “new” calendar year. The calendar may change, but God never will! And we will never “run out” of time to spend with Him– if we have trusted Him for Salvation. What a wonderful thought as we “close out” one year and step into the unknown future of another!