Time.
It has been on my mind recently.
There are so many platitudes about it – time is short, time flies, killin’ time, time waits for no one, the days are long and the years are short. (There is even a specific time I am supposed to publish this post.)
Time is personified as “Father Time” in art, sculptures, and books.
And, while time is infinitely more valuable, many live by the phrase, “time is money”, not wanting to waste any time because it could be spent increasing the bottom dollar.
The Bible speaks about time as well. I looked up the word in my NIV Bible’s Concordance, and I found that the word is first mentioned in Esther. Because I found it hard to believe that the word wouldn’t surface until the seventeenth book of the Bible, I opened my husband’s ESV Concordance; I found the same thing.
“‘And who knows but that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this?'” Esther 4:14
Such a time. Esther’s “such a time” was her royal position as queen to King Xerxes. Her role as queen though was hardly glamorous. King Xerxes was an arrogant, shallow womanizer. He surrounded himself with like-minded men, made critical decisions while under the influence of alcohol because culture thought intoxication put him in closer touch with the spiritual world, and he made rash decisions based on emotion. Moreover, Esther became queen because of her physical appearance. “Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins.” (Esther 2:17) I don’t know about you, but that verse makes my skin crawl.
Before becoming queen, Esther was raised by her cousin; we aren’t sure what happened to her parents, but the situation – both with her upbringing and with her marriage – certainly wasn’t “how it’s supposed to be.”
What is your “such a time”? What in your life would you categorize as, “this isn’t how it is supposed to be?”
As time ticks closer to Thanksgiving, I plan to balance this question and my emotional, earthly response with the truth I found in Psalm 39. Verses 4-6 speak about how our time – our “such a time” – is limited on Earth. The NLT translation has it this way:
“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered – how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath…we are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.”
May I be a woman who gives thanks during my “such a time”, and may I remember that my life is fleeing as I interact with my husband, children, family, friends, and those around me.
