The Same 24 Hours?

Gal 4:4 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,”

My wife and I were talking the other day about how everyone has the same twenty-four hours in a day. Time is not suspended for anyone, although there is that one time in the Old Testament when time stood still so Joshua and the armies of Israel could defeat their enemies. (Joshua 10:13) Oh, and there was that other time when King Hezekiah had his length of days extended with a sign of the sundial turning back. (2 Kings 20) So, other than that, no one gets a different twenty-four hours than anyone else.

Yet, they are really different in reality while they are being lived out aren’t they? My twenty-four hours is not like the young couple who has just had a new baby that totally consumes their world and time now as new parents. Nor is it like the young couple who have three toddlers running about the house, especially if it is young boys in the home. And my time compared to the retired man who now finds himself confined to a nursing home because Alzheimer’s has begun taking his mind is certainly different.

The time itself has not changed, but the priorities and demands of those hours radically affect the activities and results of the day. The mother of the toddler is just glad to get through the day without any major incidents that can occupy an hour of time cleaning up the mess. Have that newborn baby be jaundiced and crying all day long and the same twenty-four hours have radically changed into misery only a parent can know. Compare this to the young couple who are madly in love who cannot get enough time in a single day and the new parent with the ill child who wishes the day would end and bring health with the new sunrise.

God works in perfect timing, planned and executed for perfectly occurring events in time. So did the Son enter the world, as well as perfectly entering into our lives at the appointed time. Time will not likely be suspended for us, nor will it likely be turned back so we can have a second chance at making those mistakes into non-mistakes. But there is a plan being worked out and this is obvious from scripture. It is a question of what our part is in that plan and what we are doing with those hours. It is what you will do with those hours allotted to all of us.

Perhaps today making it through the day without anyone killing another member of the family will be sufficient if you have toddlers. Perhaps today can be life-changing though. One act of kindness, a few minutes praying for someone, time spent reading your Bible or seeking God’s face, or even sharing your faith with the teller at the bank can make all of the difference in the world. It’s twenty-four hours and it is not the television show, it is your life. What will you do with the time?