And sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, Who created Heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer. Revelation 10:6
On my wall hangs a lovely calendar that I have enjoyed for these past 12 months; tomorrow it becomes obsolete. Tomorrow, the calendar will refer to history, to the past, to days, weeks, and months that are no longer relevant. You have calendars like that, too. I remember some of the calendars we had when I was a child had lovely pictures on them, and we used to cut the pictures out and keep them. That’s all a calendar from last year is good for, pictures and memories. The little expression in today’s text refers to something even more dramatic when it speaks of there being time no longer. It refers to a move into a sphere where calendars and clocks have nothing to measure. The new year is a bit like eternity, in that the time of the old year is no longer relevant.
Were you busy in this past year? Did you get it all done? Did you visit everybody you had hoped to visit? Did you achieve the goals you set for yourself last January? Did you find the year fulfilling in terms of your hopes and aspirations? Or did you, like so many of us, enter the year with a few half-hearted resolutions that you prosecuted with half-hearted vigour? It is no surprise then that we exit the year wondering where its days have fled and wondering how we achieved so little.
I remember when as a high school student I would leave the auditorium where I wrote my examinations. The exams were timed, and when the time was up, we were required to stop writing. As I walked away, I would usually think of something that I should have, but didn’t, include in my answers. But it was too late, time had expired. So too in 2017, we can no longer write on the year’s pages, no longer do or speak what we intended, no longer achieve that goal or complete that project.
But the ending of a year also brings to a close its disappointments and failures, its tragedies and sorrows, its losses and mistakes. The ending of a year brings before us a new page, a fresh opportunity, a letting go of the things of the past that we might grasp the blessings of the new. Tossing out the old calendar for a new one can bring a sense of relief that we can turn our back on the past and peer expectantly into the future.
Time no longer! It has a finality about it that can cause us to regret our lack of energy and diligence, or cause us to rejoice that God has given us a new year in which to move according to His purposes. -Jim MacIntosh