Life, Time and Giving

Spirituality Column #108
December 2, 2008
Current in Carmel
Current in Westfield

Life, Time and Giving
By Bob Walters

And the Word became flesh … John 1:14

Time is a funny thing.

We rely on clocks and calendars and seasons, are immersed in a life that resides in time, and yet have no greater obstacle to understanding God than the fact that we are inside the constraints of time and He is not.

God operates in eternity; we look at our watch.

Lucky for us, Jesus Christ stepped into history – into our time – and in a very profound way eliminated the barrier of time in our relationship with God.

Christ’s incarnation – the very Word of God stepping into the flesh, mess, passion, confusion and time that is humanity – is the true meaning of Christmas and the greatest reason and cause for celebrating the birth of Jesus.

It is to our perpetual – what shall we call it … diminishment? – that the Christmas season is reduced to merely a time of year. We are in error if we focus only on this moment in time, when what God has handed to us – and put within us – is the perfect bridge from the confines of our earthly lives into the vast, inexpressible, and timeless glory of His eternal love.

Christmas is fun; and it’s a great publicity stunt for Jesus. The Christmas holiday creates community and helps us love one another … at least a little better, for at least a little bit of time.

But if we stop there, with celebrating a season, then we miss the unique and important part of “the Word” – God, becoming “Flesh” – Human, and how that frees us from the earthly shackle of time. The incarnation of Christ, and the resulting indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us, unites the one divinity and all of humanity for all time. That’s Christmas.

Time just got trumped for a larger world; eternity is as big as it gets.

We may think time is our most precious commodity, our most precious gift. But our time, in our own hands, is absolutely a non-renewable resource.

God’s eternity, given to us in the gift of Christ becoming man, means that God’s love is with us always. Not at this time or that time or only when we pray or buy Christmas presents … always.

Think about that the next time you look at your watch.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figures that even if we still don’t understand God or God’s timing, we can find peace in not needing to be in a hurry.