8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Last week Einstein's General Theory of Relativity turned 100 years old. One thing the theory tells us is that time is relative to circumstance and place. Einstein used to explain his theory with a real life illustration: "If you touch a stove for five seconds, it feels like an hour; but if you sit with a pretty girl for an hour it feels like five minutes. That's relativity."
From our earthly perspective we have been waiting too long for righteousness to bud from the branch and for things wrong in this world to be made right. We don't know if we can hang on as a world much longer -- especially as evil and the forces of destruction gain more speed and power. We wonder if the dam can hold. With the psalmist we say, "How long?" but what we really mean is, "How much longer?"
This is the time for trusting in the timing of God. Time is relative to circumstance and place, we have to remember that "His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts." If there is delay then we must trust that the delay is of good reason. And it is indeed. In fact, we are told the reason for delay in today's Lesson: "that all should reach repentance."
If there is judgment and reckoning then it is for goodness sake; if there is delay then it is for goodness sake. And if there is even greater delay, then it is for the sake of the whole world.
"The times are in His hands," the Scripture says. That means they're in good and trustworthy hands.
And so are we.
May we believe that; and may we believe it especially this time, and season, and year.
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