THE CHILDREN'S TIME-KEEPING

Even the most grown-up of persons cannot tell what it would be like if there were no such thing as time. Yet we must always remember that one great blessing of the gospel is that we have the assurance of salvation for time and eternity as well, as believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. The sun in the sky, the greatest blessing in the old creation, rules the day and hence our time. Jesus said that it rises on the evil and on the good - in loving kindness putting evil persons first. The sun in the heavens is also a reminder of the Lord being now in glory, having made purification of sins by His blood.

It is therefore the sun that really governs our time-keeping although we have clocks and watches for obvious reasons. Even younger children will have seen a sundial showing the time as gradually getting on as the shadow of the gnomon moves round the dial. A king of Judah once wanted a sign that God would bless him. The prophet then asked him whether the sun should go down or go back ten degrees on the sundial. No doubt Hezekiah had proved that it is easy to lose time and that it was therefore a light thing that the shadow should go down. So he wisely asked for it to go backward and this came to pass by a miracle thus, as it were, gaining time. If the degrees were the same as in our geography books the time gained would represent forty minutes - just about the time of a gospel preaching!

Even when we feel that we have wasted time, God's grace is still towards us in the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we are told to redeem, or buy back, the time, which means using it wisely because it is so valuable. Centuries ago the last words of a queen of England were 'All my possessions for a moment of time!' I suppose that she felt that she had neglected God's salvation. Do you prove that now is the well-accepted time and today is the day of salvation?

J.C.Evershed