Ecclesiastes 3:1-2,10-11,14 – For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted. I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it; God has done this so that all should stand in awe before him. (NRSV)

My friend and I had a ritual when I went to visit. Since she had severe arthritis in her hands, I would always wind her grandmother clock — which was shorter than a longcase grandfather clock. It was one of those thirty-day clocks, and sometimes when I would visit, she would laugh and say that she only had a day left … on her clock, that is. And so, I would wind and wind and wind, and the clock was good for another thirty days. That sound resonated with me as the swinging pendulum repeated the message over and over and over … tick tock.

I went to see her when she entered the hospital. She smiled her radiant smile, and we talked for a moment. I quietly said that I wouldn't be able to wind her clock on this visit. Within an hour, she took a turn for the worse. She had used up her strength, and the energy was gone, the spring slack. Time stops, life ends, and Jessie is gone. Tick … .

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die." (Ecclesiastes 3:1 NRSV) And the clock ceases to tick and life is over. This is the time that we are accustomed to, and when this time runs out, the world says, "It is finished." When the world says that it's finished, it really means that it is over and done and gone.

But there is another sound that overwhelms that of the clock. It is the sound of eternity. Sometimes in life, the "tick tock" seems to drown it out, but it is there, and there are times when it is ever so clear and concise. The time that we keep here on earth makes a lot of noise … tick tock. But what awaits those who trust that Jesus has gone on ahead to prepare a place for us resonates to the silent wonder of love … God's time … eternity.

My friend's grandmother clock hangs above our mantle, a gift from a grateful family. It is silent now, but still ever so meaningful.

This day, I wish for you a time and place where the tick tock is muted and the sound of eternity resonates through you, here and now.

Prayer: Lord, help us to be still and listen for the sound of eternity. Amen.

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About the author:

Kenn Stright <kennethstright@yahoo.ca>
West Petpeswick, Nova Scotia, Canada
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