Time for life by Gary Rose

The obvious answer is: The day of your birth and death. However, I suppose that there is that odd person out there who was born exactly at midnight and died exactly at midnight as well. For the overwhelming majority of us your birthday and the day you die will apply to that 24 hour question.

Time is such an arbitrary thing. Since the size of the earth at the equator and the Antarctic differ, so the hours of daylight are different in both areas. In fact, in northern Alaska, there are extended periods of light and darkness, depending on the season. As far as the seasons go, the length of the day is longer in June that it is in January. And don’t forget the overnight worker, whose night is his day. For me, time is really not about the EXACT time of light or dark, but rather what a person does with their life. Jesus referred to something like this in the gospel of John…

John 11 ( World English Bible )

  ¹ Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.  ² It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick. ³ The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.”  ⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.”  ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.  ⁶ When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was.  ⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.” 

  ⁸  The disciples told him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 

  ⁹  Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.   ¹⁰  But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.”

In the time of Jesus, people thought of time in periods of light and darkness and exactness was really not that much of an issue. People worked during the day (because they had light) and relaxed and slept at night. More than this, if a person was on God’s correct moral path (symbolized by light) he would not do the deeds of darkness (actions contrary to God’s will). Further, if a person lived a Godly life, then he had nothing to fear from evil, for God will take care of him in this life and the next.

Bottom line:

Don’t worry so much about time and be more concerned about walking in the light (God’s will).