How Time Flies!

by Monica Hernandez

Today, I celebrate another year-cycle on planet earth; it is my birthday. Wanting to get as much as possible out of today, I awoke early—6:00 am. to be exact. And though I did not accomplish anything spectacular, it was a great day. I believe this was my most well-wished birthday for a long time.

Have you ever wondered at how our birthdays keep piling up on us and we cannot hold them back? It seems to me like it was just a few weeks ago that I was up for birthday wishes, e-cards and all, and here it is again today. And as the birthday wishes, phone calls, flowers and gifts poured in, I reflected on time and how it flies.

Have you ever wondered about time and how it flies? Time does its own thing. We cannot control it, tame it, or hold it back. We cannot put a finger on it. And about our birthdays, we cannot say to time: “Not this year, please...hold this birthday back. I am not ready...I will sit this one out.”

Sometimes, as we watch the years piling up on us, we ask the question: “What is time?” And today, as I thought about time and how it flies, I was reminded of these words by St. Augustine: “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.”

About time, Charles Dickens once commented: “Old Time, that greatest and longest established spinner of all...his factory is a secret place, his work is noiseless, and his hands are mutes.” True.

When I asked my husband for his take on time, he said: “Time waits for no one, you know that.” That too, is true.

Terry, my nephew, phoned in from Germany with birthday greetings for me and he surely made my day. His take on time was this: “Time is the longest thing we have” and “It is better that time flies and not stand still.” Talk about wisdom! Truly, if time stood still, there would be no life. I never thought of that.

I have heard people say that God is partial. People often say this when they consider how some are rich while others are poor. However, concerning time, it flies for everyone and birthdays? This is one area where people cannot say God is partial—the rich and poor, all have to get older as the weeks and months, and years go by.

While it is customary to make resolutions at the time of the New Year, I find it more appropriate to make resolutions on my birthday. It is a new year-cycle and I find significance in setting my thoughts in order at this time. Today, as I reflected on the past year of my life, making up a sum-total, I realize how many of my personal goals have been accomplished and some dreams came true. And I thank God for that.

God has been good, and I thank Him for life, health, strength, courage, family and all He has done through my life this past year and I look forward to a new year, again filled with God's best, beginning today.

Suggested Readings: Psalm 90:12; Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.