Perfect Timing

He made the moon to mark the seasons,

and the sun knows when to go down.

Psalm 104:19

Why had I overslept? My internal clock is reliable. It wakes me every morning around 6:00 a.m. without the aid of an alarm clock. But here I was, staring at the digital numbers that clearly stated 7:00 a.m.

Then I remembered. The day before, we had turned the clocks ahead an hour. Though my physical clock displayed 7:00, my internal clock screamed 6:00. I was right on time according to how I was designed, but I was off track according to human prescription.

When God created the world, Scripture tells us he said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years” (Genesis 1:14).

God created light in the darkness to serve as a beacon for humankind so we would know when to rise and when to sleep (each day), when to plant and when to harvest (each season), and when to remember and celebrate God’s faithfulness (each year).

The word “mark” is not used in every Bible translation, but it adds another dimension to the understanding of Genesis 1:14. The definition of "mark" is to abide or wait for things to occur. This tells me that we are to wait for God to tell us when to rise and when to sleep. We are to wait for God to tell us when to plant and when to harvest. We are to wait for God to tell us when to remember and celebrate him. We are to place our comings and our goings in his hands.

But we are not very good at waiting, nor are we very good at depending on God for direction. We prefer to take control of our own time. In our fast-paced world where everything we desire is just a click away, we choose to fill up our time as we see fit, not mark it. This is nothing new. This kind of behavior has been around since practically the beginning of time.

Right after God created Adam and Eve, he gave them a job: to oversee the animals and the garden. He said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground” (Genesis 1:28). But right out of the gate, the first two humans focused on what they didn’t have (permission to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) instead of what they did possess (access to everything in the Garden of Eden as well as an intimate relationship with God).  

God’s timing is not our timing. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). This sentence does not refer to chronological time. It refers to kairos time, which is defined as God’s appointed time. Think of it as passing time vs. special time, or quantitative time vs. qualitative time. Therefore, the writer of Ecclesiastes was saying that everything God has planned for us has a purpose and will come to fruition when the time is right. I can’t help but wonder if God would have given Adam and Eve permission one day to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—had they only waited and trusted in God’s kairos timing.

I know it’s hard to wait on God. Heck, I’ve taken matters into my own hands more than I care to admit. But I also believe that “there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery” (Ecclesiastes 8:6). 

Trusting in God’s timing can be difficult, especially when we are struggling or grieving. But if we truly believe in a loving God who has our best interests at heart, then we must persevere by abiding in him. I believe King David knew this when he wrote, “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:5-7).

God has a plan. And whether we like it or not, it will happen in kairos time. We can either submit and endure with God, or we can deny and endure without him. This I know for sure: the reward is and will be greater with him. “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him” (Lamentations 3:25). What a wonderful world this could be.

THE SONG THAT COMES TO MIND is Turn! Turn! Turn! by the Byrds. (It’s an oldie but goodie!)

Favorite lyric: “A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.”