Presentation is Everything

Time is a frustrating device indeed.

Sometimes we need it to pass quickly, but more often, we simply can’t come up with enough of it.  One thing is certain though, we have to live and operate within its framework.

Just like every other dimension of this life, it’s a Created phenomenon.  In the same way as the Earth has natural physical boundaries, time either constrains or protracts the business of living, affecting virtually everything connected to that activity.

So what is it about this precious commodity that sets it apart from oxygen, or water or food for example?

Even though they might not always be available, these three elements are renewable necessities.  Time is not.  I cannot create and utilize any more additional time allotted to me in order to relive or correct an experience.

I can only steal it from what lies ahead.

Every time I read Moses’ 90th Psalm, I’m increasingly blown away by the Lord God’s unfathomable wisdom and omnipotence.  It seems that He fashioned His apparatus of time solely for the purposes of His creation rather than Himself:

“For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.” [vs. 4]

But more importantly, Moses was extremely mindful of how the restraints of time that are built into the lives of mortal men existed as a condition to master every bit as much as their performance:

“Who understands the power of Your anger and Your fury, according to the fear that is due You? So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.  Do return, O Lord.  How long will it be?” [vss. 11-13a]  [my emphasis]

[מָנָה manah: to count, number, reckon]

Not only that, he appealed to his God to hasten their day of joy—the day when the “work of their hands” might be confirmed for all to see:

“Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us, and the years we have seen evil.  Let Your work appear to Your servants and Your majesty to their children.  Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and confirm for us the work of our hands—yes, confirm the work of our hands.” [vss. 15-17]

I can only hope that the work of my hands shall be confirmed [or approved] by my Lord when He returns as well.  But that might very well hinge upon just how well I was able to manage the small block of time that was granted to me to accomplish that work.

And if I never gained the wisdom to do that effectively, then anything else I present to Him would most likely be irrelevant.

That could be an awkward situation.