We are in that limbo
period after Christmas. Now that pictures of Father Time are around,
that put me in a mood to consider that most powerful force. John
Lennon saw it as the way we measure our dreams.

One of our fancier word
bases for time, chronology comes from Chronos, a primordial Greek
god. Time wrapped around the world in a serpentine way. One of his
children, Zeus would replace him and become king of the gods. In
other words, time was wrapped around the world.

January’s name
comes from the Roman god, Janus, who had two faces, one looking back
and the other looking forward. It was used at entryways, so it became
a good choice to enter the New Year. We look back at the year past,
tinged with a sense of blessing and regret, and look forward to the
new year, tinged with a touch of foreboding and anticipation.

The new movie, Benjamin
Button, is about reversal of time, when a child looks old and becomes
more youthful in time. In this instance, Father Time looks to be Brad
Pitt in his middle years. We often hear people say that they would
love to be in their teens but knowing what they do in their middle
years. It wonders aloud why time seems to conspire to draw us
together or to pull us apart. Even as he grows physically younger,
Benjamin worries about the transience of life, and what to hold on
to.

For Christians,
Christmas marks the entry of the eternal God into the transient world
of our mortal life and times. God is involved in our futures, but God
has us working to mold our futures. Called to be good and faithful
custodians of this world, we are asked by God to handle time with
care. Most o us first think of wasting time, but I think our issue
with time points in another direction.

Time pressures seem to
dog us, new year or old. It’s not merely a matter of
organization, but of trying to jam so much activity into limited time
that time feels like a weight constantly hanging over us. Watching a
great football game, we find that time does fly. Listening to a
sermon may well convince us that all the clocks in the world have
stopped. The clock moves inexorably, but time feels relative to our
interest and engagement. Our filling every available moment is a form
of denial of the transience of time and our limited time here.
Multitasking is a sign of refusing to pay attention to something
worth our precious time.

Perhaps a valuable New
Year’s resolution would be to take some careful looks at how we
squander or overuse our time. Where do we spend more time than we
should, say in watching the 4^th quarter of a meaningless
game? Where do our spoken time priorities fall away, say in playing
with our young children or paying special attention to our spouse?
Quality time is a good use of our life, but we could look at all the
areas where we do not spend quality time. In that sense, think of
prayer time’s miracle. The eternal God of time is always
willing to take time, to spend time with us. For a while, our souls
are brought together to tha tplace where time has no end.