麻豆约拍

Good morning and a Happy New Year. There鈥檚 a part of me that can鈥檛 help feeling it seems really no time at all since the beginning of 2017. Which takes me back to something an elderly lady said to me many years ago when I was a young assistant minister. 鈥淢r Tosh鈥�, she remarked, 鈥渁s you get older, you鈥檒l find that time sees to go more quickly鈥�. I have to confess that then, I didn鈥檛 know what she was talking about. I certainly do now!聽 For as somebody said to me in December, 鈥淐hristmas seems to come round every three months or so.鈥� I knew what he meant.

I suppose when we were children, with summers seeming to stretch out for ever, we had less to pre-occupy us, fewer things to worry about, not many deadlines to meet. And as we get older, these things begin to press in on us and there seems to be less time to stop and to do nothing. Not of course that all time will pass rapidly as we get older. Waiting for the result of an interview or a medical test, or for news of someone we love, time can and does pass interminably slowly. Chronic illness and debilitating loneliness or isolation can have the same effect.

Psalm 90, with its assurance that God has been our dwelling place in all generations is a good Psalm to reflect on on a New Year鈥檚 Day. It has an interesting insight on time when it says that in God鈥檚 sight a thousand years 鈥渁re like yesterday when it is past or like a watch in the night.鈥澛� And it also reminds us that whether times passes quickly slowly for us, our days will come to an end,

The Psalmist has a prayer appropriate for this day and for every day, 鈥淪o teach us to number our days that we may gain a wise heart.聽 Amen.