Time. This most precious, mysterious and universal of all concepts has fascinated mankind since his beginning. From the moment of conception, our odyssey through time begins. Please travel with me as I attempt to unravel some of the mysteries of this most amazing dimension.
The first thing we notice about the dimension of time is that it can be broken down into many different intervals. For example, the average American male today can expect to live to approximately seventy-five years of age. This is the equivalent of approximately 900 months, 3,900 weeks, 27,400 days, 657,500 hours, 39,447,000 minutes or 2,366,820,000 seconds.
Time can also be sliced in many other interesting ways. For example, if we sleep an average of eight hours a day, then fully one-third of our existence is spent asleep. Of the 27,400 days our life consists of (if we live to the average of seventy-five years), we are left with only 18,266 days of activity time. This is because our sleep time is used for complete body rest. 18,266 days doesn’t seem all that much, but one thing is certain, by the time you read this devotion and wake up the next day, one less day will be in your reserve.
I am currently 70 years-old. And if I live to 75 (hopefully I will live a lot longer) I only have approximately 1,218 days of activity time left to live. Wow, that doesn’t seem like much! As we get older, how little precious time we seem to have left. With such little time available to us, the question of how best to use what we have, and to find some meaning in life as our days rapidly dwindle, becomes of paramount importance.
Fortunately, as a Christian I choose to look at life quite differently than a non-Christian. For the non-Christian they have no real confidence of what awaits them when they die. They can only hope that there is a heaven and that they will be able to go there – but on what basis? The only way we can go to heaven is if we meet the entrance requirements and the only place we can find out what these requirements are is in the Bible. And the Bible tells us we must be born again through a relationship with Jesus – that’s the only way we get to heaven.
But as a Christian I am excited that God has shown me that our existence can be broken down into five time periods and the last time period is just out of this world.
The first time period is that we existed before time began in the mind of God. The second time period is at conception where the foreknowledge of God becomes the reality of life. The third time dimension is at birth, nine months after conception, when we make our way into the world – and until our 75 years are up. The fourth time dimension is physical death when we leave our earthly bodies. And the fifth and last dimension, when we know Christ, is eternal life with Jesus in heaven – and this dimension will last forever!
As a Christian we can share these five time stages with our unsaved love ones and let them know that we, as a Christian, don’t have to be afraid of death because death is our portal to the most exciting time dimension of all – eternal life. When you don’t know Christ life can be scary indeed since the only time dimension you really know exists is from birth to death; and 75 years seems so short when measured against eternity.
Thomas Watson once said: “The race is short between the cradle and the grave!”1 And that is why we, as Christians, need to share the gospel and pray for the salvation of others as often as the opportunity arises because without Christ the consequences of death are truly catastrophic!
1 Inspirational Quotes by Thomas Watson – page 2 (bibleportal.com)