Topic(s): Time

“The clock of time is wound but once and no one has the power to know just when the hands will stop at an early or a late hour.”  This may not be an exact quote of the poem but it is close.  We are told that the people of the “Greatest Generation.” What we may better know as “the World War II generation,” are dying out at a rate of 1200 per day.

Since I belong to the Korean War Generation, which came fast on the heels of the WW II generation, I suppose that my generation is also dying out at a rapid pace. It is kind of like an hour glass with the sand slowly sifting through. Sooner or later it reaches all of us. It is something we cannot prevent. It is appointed unto all that we must die (Heb. 9:27).

Death comes to most after a long illness. In fact, death comes as a welcome relief to many who have suffered for a long period of time with no hope of recovery.  Concerning the seven who died in the space ship, Columbia, as it was reentering the earth’s atmosphere, I wonder if they had time to realize what was happening to them before death came upon them.  It has to have been sudden. As tragic as their deaths were it was better than death following a long and painful illness.

Many denomination preachers warn people about the “end time” as a time that is drawing nearer with each passing day, but what about physical death? That, too, is closing in on everyone in only a matter of a few years, at the most. While no one knows just when Christ will return and the earth will be consumed with fire and destroyed (2 Pet. 3), we all know that physical death is staring all of us in the face, something that can come slowly or quickly as was the case with the seven astronauts.

Senator John Glenn said that he would have gone up on Columbia had he known before hand that it would not return safely to earth. I’d prefer not to know when the end is coming even though I know that it will come.

"What is the point of this article?" some may be thinking. There are many points. One is that time is short and quickly running out and we have no time to waste in doing the work that God put us here to do (Jn. 9:4). Another is that time is precious, it is what life is made of (Jas. 4:14). Also, time is when we prepare for eternity.  “Today is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

—Glenn Gray

 Well said: “Don’t wait to make your son a great man—make him a great boy.”