The Divine Timepiece

Sometime before I retired from my preaching ministry, the watch I wore on my left arm quit working.  I made a conscious decision not to replace it.  While many of the pew sitters always lamented the times preaching went past noon, I tried not to pay much attention to the time.  By that time I had come to a place of figuring I was going to preach until I got finished.  I planned to have everything which was a part of worship completed within an hour, but if it went over I did not go into panic mode. 

 

Actually, no preacher needs a watch as a reminder that noon has arrived, or that the sermon is getting too long.  Unless the preacher is glued to reading a sermon, those listening will be seen taking long looks at their watches, or perhaps, taking the watch off and shaking it near their ears to see if it is still working.  So, with all this in mind, I decided not to buy another watch. 

 

By the time I got to the retirement years, I had grown accustomed to not wearing a watch.  What I soon discovered was that the Creator had a time piece which could be trusted.  After a season or two of watching the sun make its journey from one horizon to another, I learned to sense where the hands of the clock might be had I one to see.    But, on a scale larger than the minutes of the day, the Creator God has given us markers of time.  Things like rising moons, bud breaking, fall foliage, and the shortening of days are just a few of the things which speak of the order of the creation around us.  I have come to appreciate the Creator's time piece.  It puts me more in sync with what He is doing than the watch I used to wear on my wrist.