The title is a fancy way of saying that tomorrow’s addition of an extra date to the calendar (this is a leap year) got me thinking about time.
The insertion of an extra day into the calendar for corrective purposes was an innovation of Julius Caesar 2000 years ago. It was modified a bit when the “Gregorian” calendar was adopted in the western world in 1582. But, this article is not about that…
We are creatures bound by time. We mark the day of our birth, each year in turn, and finally, the day of our death. Our physical existence is measured by decades, years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. Our written history will add centuries, and perhaps a few millennia, but ultimately the span of our temporal existence is greatly limited.
Perhaps this is why the concept of God is met with such resistance. The skeptic is certainly challenged by the evolutionist’s hypothetical “billions of years”, but is absolutely unable to grasp the idea of a Being without beginning or end.
Even Christians struggle with the scope of eternity. The goal of eternity in God’s presence, while desired, is too often a remote concept. We live in the here and now, and sometimes our focus strays (to our detriment) to what this life has to offer. Let us never forget the only question of importance, as asked of Jesus by the young ruler, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17).
