More time?

Still mulling this whole time thing over, I was riding home a couple days ago and a disturbing image from my past came back to my recollection. I'd not thought directly about it for some time, but the recollection came with force. While quite morbid in nature, it frames the reality of time in an eerie but profound way.

For whatever reason, it has been my misfortune to come upon many (you'd easily have to count them on more than one hand) fatal auto wrecks. It is not as if I am an EMT or policeman mind you, I'm just an average guy, who over the past few years especially unfortunately seems to be among the first to "arrive on the scene." There was a string of a few months were I came upon three within a short time of one another. It really began to bother me.

One unfortunate occasion a few years ago involved an older woman who was hit in an intersection and her car then exited the roadway into a park/water-retention basin traveled a couple hundred yards across a field and then struck a tree with significant force. Stopping my car as quickly as I could, I ran across the field and was one of two people to find the woman still somewhat seat-belted in the car but beyond either of our abilities to help her (she appeared quite gone from this life). I believe she may have perhaps expired prior to the collision, I simply don't know. When the EMT's arrived there was apparently nothing they could do for her.

My point is not to sensationalize her demise and I pray peace for her remaining loved ones. What I found most startling was the watch on her wrist... though she had left this life and the constraints of time as we know it, her watch still faithfully ran. The sweep hand marking the seconds as it had done for as long as she owned it. It was an eerie thing to see. Closing my eyes brings the image back with startling clarity.

It was the type of watch someone would give as a gift. An "older woman's" watch that had the signs of longevity on it. The watch was still "living" but she was not. I was standing before her, helpless, on what was to be her last day.

That moment forever affected the way I view time. I used to collect watches, now having more than I can wear in nearly two week's time. I still enjoy them very much but I wear them differently since that day. My view of marking time changed in an instant.

A late friend of mine was given a pocket watch by his family after his first remission from cancer. His wife and children gave him a pocket watch because of the effort it took to check the time. Each time he wanted to know the time, he had to take the time (and effort) to take it out of his pocket, open it, then look and realize the time. There were no quick glances, no cursory checks -- every second was precious and quite intentional in his use of the watch. His memory and the witness of his pocket watch are with me to this day. I will always remember how diligently and profoundly he would check that watch. While he loved the watch, I witnessed him treasure every second he had left in this life. He really knew the value of time.

If you are on the "fast track" in life right now, do yourself a favor and take a moment to value time and appreciate having "more time," for as long as you know you have it. Save only the Savior's return, nothing will "keep" time -- not even a precious timepiece -- it will keep on ticking -- and when we're gone, it will only keep on going.

"Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord
a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
(2 Pet. 3:8)