Some people fall asleep while counting sheep. When I am restless and sleep won’t come, I play a song in my mind. Last night the song was a tune titled, “In His Time” by Diane Ball.

In his time, in his time
He makes all things beautiful
in his time

Lord, please show me everyday
As you’re teaching me your way
That you do just what you say
in your time

In your time, in your time
You make all things beautiful
in your time

Lord my life to you I bring
May each song I have to sing
Be to you a lovely thing
in your time

Lord, please show me everyday
As your teaching me your way
That you do just what you say
in your time

In your time, in your time,
You make all things beautiful
in your time

Lord my life to you I bring
May each song I have to sing
Be to you a lovely thing
in your time.

Sleep eventually comes, but the lyrics remind me of some eternal truths that I want to reflect on. I call to mind that time is in God’s hands and God does not reckon time the same way I do. In our often too busy lives, we are governed by calendars and time constraints. God does not suffer the same constraints of time that control our agendas.

In Greek theology and philosophy there are two words for time. “Kronos” represents chronological time, the linear and measurable passage of time, while “Kairos” signifies an opportune or “divinely appointed” moment, a time of significance and opportunity. 

Psalm 90:4 reminds us that “a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past,

or like a watch in the night.” Ecclesiastes notes that God makes everything suitable for its time. (Ecc. 3:11).

God does not work according to my time schedule or my expectations. The mere fact that I want something, now, does not obligate God to grant my desires. I may pray diligently for a specific outcome. When I don’t get the result in my timeframe, frustration may result. Anger with God for not being a genie in a lamp ready to jump out and grant my every wish. In God’s Kairos time, God’s perfect time, my prayer will be answered in the best way possible-God’s way. The answer may be no. The answer may be wait. The answer may be silence.

As time-bound creatures we find it difficult to accept the fact that God works in a perfect timeframe, that is not bound by space, time constraints. In a paragraph above I referred to eternal truths. One eternal truth is that as a child of God, I have to learn to abdicate my wants and trust God with the outcomes of my prayers and my desires. I am most often like a young child.  I want what I want, now! The simplest form of faith is trusting God with the totality of our lives and allowing God the opportunity to work all things together for good, in the lives of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. (See Romans 8:28)

In 1972 Jim Croce wrote, “Time in a Bottle.” The premise of the song is that if one could save time in a bottle that time could be used to share life with the one whom we love. “If I could make days last forever If words could make wishes come true, I’d save every day like a treasure and then Again, I would spend them with you.”

Another inviolable truth is that we cannot save time in a bottle. This moment in time may be the only opportunity I have to show you God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness. Today, may be your Kairos moment. It may be your one chance to forgive the person who wronged you, even if they never ask forgiveness from you. It may be the only moment you will ever have to ask forgiveness of the one you have wronged. God has graciously given you and me today. I don’t want to waste this God moment in time.

The song says, “Lord my life to you I bring, may each song I have to sing be to you a lovely thing in your time.” Here is the foundational truth. We live our lives as an ongoing song to God. We trust. We believe. We praise. Our times are in God’s hands. Our song is making each day we are granted a song of praise, love, and faithfulness.