Tuesday, April 27

Though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
—John 11:6

We are very connected to time. We want things to happen, even need things to happen, within a certain timeframe. We all know the stress that screams through our body when we are already late for an appointment and then find ourselves stuck in traffic because of an accident up ahead. We tap the steering wheel, our blood pressure rises, the heat of stress flashes across our face. All we want is to have a path cleared so we can drive through and get where we need to be.

Or consider the anxiety that comes when we're waiting for someone we love to arrive from a far distant place. We find ourselves continually watching the clock as if by watching it, time will pass more quickly. Yet all of our worry, anxiety and restlessness can do nothing to bring our loved one to us more quickly than they are meant to come.

Because God is not bound by time, we do not need to be bound by it. A friend of mine says it this way, “God's clock has no hands.” Imagine how free we would feel if we could dwell in that divine timelessness. 

We would relax into the moment knowing that there are an infinite number of other moments yet to come. We would not push ahead to claim something in the future, nor feel the pressure left behind when someone didn't respond to us in a “timely” fashion.

Our lives would feel more like the gentle rise of the sun as the moon slips from view, and the gentle rise of the moon as the sun melts away. We would find our souls draped in gentle peace. 

Perhaps it was good for us that Jesus stayed two days longer in the place where he was—if only to remind us that time need not be our master.

Gracious God, may I know that time can never alter the truth that I am living in eternity now.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2008.