"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said 'Let there be light,' and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:1-5). And time began.

We are clock-watchers. We have a time to get up, a time to go to work, a time to stop working, a time for meals. We have nap time, game time, play time, free time, breakfast time, lunch time, supper time, departure time, arrival time, bath time, sometime, all the time, and most of us would agree that we have no time. Everything from movies to shopping to giving birth is on a schedule. Of course, some people have more respect for time than others. We all know those who are consistently early and those who are habitually, if not fashionably, late. People have written songs about it: "Time is on My Side," "Time in a Bottle," "The Hands of Time." There are books about it: The Time Machine, Somewhere in Time, The Time Traveler's Wife. There are publications of all sorts: Time Magazine, The New York Times . . . I could go on and on.

It's fascinating to think that as focused as we are on the concept of time, there was no such thing before God created it. Our God lives an existence completely unbound by the laws of time. "But 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" (II Peter 3:8). It is a part of His creation and plan for us. As surly as God created man, He knew that man would fall; and as surly as He knew man would fall, He planned a time of deliverance. "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). And a time is coming when we, too, will be delivered from time.

We can attempt to predict the future based on our facts and figures, the Mayan calendar, and even upon scripture, but it's all in God's Hands. He alone controls the future. Literally, thank God who says, "Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: my purpose will stand" (Isaiah 46:8-10).

Praise the Lord God Jehovah!