Time: An invaluable creation of God

Genesis 1: 3
‘Let there be light and there was light.’ The light God called it day and the darkness night. ‘There was morning and there was evening, the first day.’ The most previous and invaluable commodity that God created here is time. Before that there was timelessness. God has no time. God is eternal-eternity has no time- there is no end and no beginning. To God a day or decade was just the same. It has no relevance to him. The Genesis story tells us of a creation that must now centre around time in which its relevance will affect man and his livelihood. Death and life is determined by time. Seasons are times as reaction of environment. Environments produce certain fruits or weather pattern per time in their specific location of the universe.
When God created light and dark and as it passed time ticks into action. Biblical writers called it the ‘first day,” a segment of time that distinguishes from a period when light was shining to a period when darkness covers the light until next light shines. The eternity is demarcated by segments of day and night and one can give names to the cycle of day and night and created a calendar out of it.
Today church denominations argue against of the name of the day which is determined by a segment of day and night to denote one as important to another. We do this to think that God also will agree with us to pick one day more important than to another. We, in fact, take human assumption into God’s mind and force him to think as we, humans do. We fail to see that time is not determined by the activity of God, but activity of God determined time. For example, God commanded, let there be light and there was light, He separated light from darkness and it was first day. It was not on Monday God created day and night, it was the first day, the activity that identifies with the first day was light and darkness. It could be Monday, or Sunday or even Saturday because the name of the segment of activities of God in the creation determines time. The names of time was a very late invention.
Physically, we cannot tell the difference between Saturday and Sunday. We can only, however, tell by the cycle of day and night as the creation of God functions. If you were left unconscious in a desert or an inhabited island with no watch etc (like Tom Hanks’ Castaway), you can create your own calendar. You can name the cycle of day and night with the same names differently from the world. Would it make any difference? Absolutely not! You can set a day for worship which might be Wednesday in other countries in the same time Zone, but designate it as Sunday in your calendar. Does it matter? It is really not as far as a name is concerned, but it matters as far as worship is concerned, you rested and worship God. Is that what God intends for human beings, to know or rather have time so that we labour for certain time and worship him on certain time.
Time is made for man and not for God because God is timeless. He is eternal and where He is, there is life. There is no death in God thus time is irrelevant. Time is synonymous with man because time determines man’s life. When life is no more that is when death do take over man- there is no time. That is to say, night and day do not happen to the man. Time is just gone.
What does it teach us about this important creation of God, the time? It, one teaches us, that time is a previous gift and is only meant for us, human. We have to use it properly and wisely because it is not renewable and cannot be rewound. We live once. Two, it teaches us that God is eternal and time is not relevant to God therefore we must always see him as the ever living being and worship and praise him for who he is. Three, there is a hope that we can live in eternity; we can pass from timeness to timelessness by believing in Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of John Christ said, “he who believe in me shall not die but have life eternal. He passed from death to life.”

The Big Picture

Genesis 1-2:35

‘Get the Big Picture’

A good friend of mine gives me a gift. It is a priceless gift, a bible. It is a devotional Bible titled ‘Today’s Light Bible that has 2year devotional readings. If I constantly and faithfully read it daily, it will take me two years to journey through the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. That demands commitment and faithfulness on my side as a Christian, yet it is grace on the side of God to inspire me with his Holy Spirit to find joy in reading in His Word and live by it. It is a big task especially for me because I always pray daily as my devotional exercise, and once in a while I would read the scriptures.
I begin with the first page, the readings on Genesis. The text is Genesis 1-2:35 with the title “Get the Big Picture.” It stresses the creation of God as gift of God, He gives to us ourselves, and those things we see and cannot see unconditionally. The text helps us to see not only ourselves and our ego that many times confine us to think of ourselves, what we need, want and do, and ignore other people and creations around us. The creation story awaken us from our slumber of ignorance to look at creation around us to see what God puts into it to bring them into their existence. Where ever we live, just take a moment, see the beauty of your surrounding and praise God for it. Many people who do not believe in God believe Him just by looking at the majestic surroundings of God. The composer of the song ‘O Great Thou Art’ may be an atheist believed in God just by looking at the big picture of God’s creation. We can sing like this writer to praise God for His mercy and love we inherit through Christ, our Lord.
Look at the big picture, God created the world out of grace. God saved his fallen humanity also out of grace. Let us get out of our confinements of ourselves and see God’s bigger picture, his creation around us to help, save, mend, comfort and witness this great God.