Time In Another Sense

        Most often people tend to view 'time' as an allusive, aggravating entity gone by far too fast for anything to have been accomplished.  We live in a world in which the faster time flies the more we find to do or wish we could do.  We seldom stop to consider that, perhaps, God intended time to be utilized in another manner.
         In our community there is a young woman who recently lost a baby through terminal illness.  Her grief is etched so deeply into her face my heart cries for her every time I see her.  I want to hug her and tell her that I understand.  My life experiences have given me the ability to identify with her pain.  But, I don't know that woman very well and I am certain she would not want to hear me tell her that 'in time her grief will grow less'.
        Yet, that is exactly what will happen.
        It is difficult to approach someone after such tragedy has occurred in their life.  They don't want to be told that they must wait until they heal to feel better.  No one wants to hear of tragic experiences that mirror their own because they may only make us hurt more.  Instead, we want to wallow in our grief turning our pain into ourselves until it consumes all the minutes and seconds of our days.
        As another example of how time drags when life is hard; these days the American family farm is in deep jeopardy.  Low prices on grain and animal (on hoof) sales bring little income while consumer prices in stores have steadily risen.  Many family farms have gone into bankruptcy during the past two decades because they do not make enough money to support the farm and the life needs of those living and working the farm.  Everyone in this situation hopes that eventually things will turn around. It is certainly difficult to wait patiently for something as allusive as 'eventually'.
        In all too many cases income on the farm won't be enough to endure that dragging time.  Many farmers have already found jobs elsewhere.  Some have had to sell land which may have belonged to their family for generations just to pay their bills.  This is essentially difficult when one thinks of all the 'time' put into developing that farm--generations of hard, back-breaking labor seem to have been for nothing.  And yet, we cannot survive without time.  Time to try to ward off or work around any kind of disaster.  Time to plan how to live through disasters.  Time to recover when disasters occur.  Just as it takes precision timing to plan and build good things, it also takes patience and time to correct bad things.
      Remember the Bible verse. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8  There is an appointed time for every affair under the heavens.  A time to be born; a time to die.  A time to plant and a time to uproot the plant; A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build; A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.  A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them; a time to embrace and a time to be far from embraces; A time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak; A time to love and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace.
        Time has been both a blessing and a curse since the beginning.  Jesus, Himself, endured waiting time often during His life.  I think, now, of His time in the Garden of Gethsemane.  While I suspect He might have been grateful for the small moment of respite, His words tell us that He really did not want to be alone, that he was frightened of enduring the suffering He knew He must for the sake of all mankind.
         I remember when I was growing up my parents worked hard but there was seldom anything in abundance.  While our old coal-heated farmhouse was always warm and filled with happiness, our diet staple during the winter months was the foods my mother preserved from the garden the previous summer and meat from our own barn lot.  My stepfather built houses for a living; so, often during the winter months his work was scarce.  He would do indoor work then, repairs, or build cabinets.  One year when there was little money to spend for Christmas presents, he used scraps from previous jobs to build a vanity for my sister and a desk for me.  My sister, in her early teens then, was also given a brush, mirror and vanity-top containers.  I was also given a toy typewriter.  My first typewriter.  I was the happiest kid in the county!  My friends may have had their Barbie dolls and fancy dollhouses but with my typewriter, I was building my future.  My parents despaired because they could give so little never realizing the foundation they were providing was--and still is--timeless
         In each of these examples 'time' becomes a precious blessing that patiently waits while the wounds heal, one by one--much like one repairs a tear in a precious quilt, one stitch at a time.  We cannot see the day when we will feel no more pain or will no longer be haunted by worry.  We must move very patiently, very slowly, one step at a time until we have healed enough that we can listen to another's experience and realize we are not alone.  Then, we will realize that the hand that helped us endure those heart-rendering times--whether they be personal, public or monetary--was the Hand of God.