If I Could Put Time in a Bottle

...the one thing that I'd like to do, is to save every day as treasure and then, again, I would spend it with you..." Jim Croce

If you could put time in a bottle, how would you spend it? Cleaning? Learning? Playing? Working? Worshiping? Evangelizing? All of the above? What does the Bible have to say about time? Our God is the Potentate of Time. The Bible refers more than once to "time, times and half a time" to describe periods of evil that last three and a half years. Our God is the Ancient of Days. He is Coming Again. Though He is eternal and infinite, He stepped into time and became like one of us "for such a time as this."

I belong to a little prayer group. One of the prayers we pray most often is that we manage our time well. We each instinctively know we waste time. We don't spend it well. We need Divine help managing the little time we have on this earth.

Time is an elusive and challenging concept. We have a limited amount of it and should consider daily, even hourly, how we spend it. Every time we say, "Not now." to the things of God, it becomes more difficult to say "now." "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." II Corinthians 6:2. I've seen it written that "Tomorrow is the day when the idle man works, the thief becomes honest, the drunkard sober." God's call is not a call for tomorrow, but for today.

The digital clock is ticking. Time is running out. If you could put it in a bottle, how would you spend it? Psalm 95:7 says, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart."

Letters from the Past (by Judy)

I recently received photocopies of two letters that stirred my heart. The first is a sweet letter from my grandfather to my father, written in the summer of 1923, when my father was five years old. It changed my memory of an elderly lawyer who enjoyed his comfortable reading chair to one who was playful, and loving, one who sent hugs and kisses in all shapes and sizes to his beloved, and their children.

The second letter was farther back in time – from my great-uncle to his sister, my great-grandmother, written from Cape Fear, NC in the waning months of the American Civil War. He paints a picture of the war that is familiar through historical accounts, photos and records. However, this one is very personal, for it is my family. He offers an explanation for his lack of communication, and then speaks of his shipmates, of an Austrian rifle that he captured from a “Reb,” and his longing for a proper Christmas mince pie, or even the usual salt pork, instead of the fare issued when they couldn’t even build a fire.

Through these precious letters I gained an insight into people from the mists of time, men and women who took on personality, with longings, passions, humor, justifications for actions, and wry observations – people who shared what they were seeing and feeling, both with the recipients of their letters, and with me today.

And that, dear readers, is what the Bible offers. Of course it is built around theology, but above all, it is about people – some who, through reading their stories, become more familiar than neighbors and acquaintances. I never knew until I starting reading, sometimes systematically, sometimes randomly. For decades the Bible gathered dust on my shelf, and now it is my favorite collection of letters and historical commentary, wry observations, justifications, humor, and love – 64 books on one subject- God and His personal relationship with us. As the school year starts, so do Bible studies in churches and communities around the world. I will be joining my BSF comrades in the book of Acts. I pray you may dwell somewhere with those beloved saints in the mist too!