Listening to the Sound of Time

A strange thing happened last year at school, most of the digital clocks stopped working. Then, after the tech repaired one, another stopped working until the school eventually replaced all the digital clocks with the good old-fashioned wall clocks. Do you remember the older watches with a big hand that moved and made the sound of minutes and a little hand for the hour? The strange thing wasn’t the clocks. The kids did not know how to tell time; they were used to digital watches and bright lights. These kids were fourth and fifth graders. The clock awakened me with the realization of my lack of telling time and listening to what time was trying to teach me.

 We forget how time ushers us throughout the day and direct us to safety or as wisdom directs us on the path of life and posterity. We don't teach our children how to listen to time because we lost track of the true meaning of God's time as a gift to be stewarded wisely; we silenced the sound of time with quiet digital clocks and bright lights.

Also, we somehow stop looking at the clock of our lifetime here with loved ones; we don’t look at the clock until it’s too late; we wonder where the time went. So do we use our time wisely to love the way God loves them, and are we attentive to them as God gives His full attention to us when we seek Him? I regret not using my time wisely with my children or grandchildren because I wasn’t listening to the time clock as a reminder of a well-spent life. Instead, I allowed the noise of business to silence it, and I was deaf in hearing the wisdom of time calling out to me through the ticking sound of the clock hanging on the wall above.

We take time for granted because we think time will never run out; it passes like the wind. But, unfortunately, death is no respecter of our time. The death of time doesn’t hit until it hits you in your heart. We walk around like digital clocks that make no sound. It doesn’t remind us to use each moment wisely. There is no wisdom calling us to choose our daily allowance of time on something meaningful. Instead, we are wasteful; until we hear the death alarm. We walk around believing we have time to make up to our loved ones until the time is gone forever; we can’t buy it, bargain with it, or beg for it; when it is gone, it is gone, period.

We stopped looking at our watches for the train of life-giving treasures right in front of us because we believed we had time to catch the next train, but it didn’t make it. As a result, we lost the sound of time, reminding us that our time was ticking away. So instead, we now have digital clocks that make no sound and bright lights until awakened to hear the death alarm time was trying to teach us.

So, now time is teaching me not physically but rather where I should spend my time and with whom I waste time. I question why I wasted my time on time thieves who didn’t care or value my time with them; I can only repent for destroying God’s precious gift of time and change my thinking about how I spend God’s allowance of time given to me. Time also teaches me to discern who are time thieves and walk away from wasteful spending with those who are time-hoarders.

I no longer take the lives of those most important to me for granted; they are not like credit cards. I was deaf to the sound of the clock until I lost my son; I begged for more time to come back. Then, like the wind, I couldn’t grasp it. Listen to the sound of the time with your children; they value your time as God loves and values you and your time with Him.

Jesus, thank you for giving me the time I had with those whom I have lost, and forgive me for not listening to the wisdom of time. Remind me by Your Spirit how time is more precious than silver or gold; it is priceless. Guide me Lord and teach me how to be a good steward with Your Gift of Time. Amen