By Kathy Klopman

I have been thinking a lot about time lately.  Maybe it is because the sunshine that defines a day has been shortened when I moved closer to the equator.  Sunrise around 6 am seems somewhat normal but complete darkness at 6:15pm everyday all year round – now that takes some adjustment.  I use to be what one would call “a night owl”.  Finding many distractions to keep me awake, I would often retire my day after the hands on the clock ushered in the start of a totally new day. Now, I eagerly slumber before the clock hands reach the double digits and awaken to the cacophony of winged willy wagtails serenading each other outside my window.

I guess you could say my thinking about time is what spurred me onto the mission field in PNG.  The stark realization that two –thirds of my life was already spent really hit me hard.  The sands of time in my hour glass were slipping away unnoticed. Since I couldn’t stop them perhaps I could slow them down by giving them an eternal  significance.  My initial effort to accomplish this was my enrollment into a course called Half-Time.  From there I was introduced to the Perspectives course which captivated my spirit as I delved into a 15 week concentrated study of our missionary God and the advancement of His Kingdom.

Genesis 1:27 states, “God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them”.  Deuteronomy 33:27 calls our God “the eternal God” and the New Testament says, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11).   I just love the way Judson Cornwall conveys this principal in his book, Praying the Scriptures.   Cornwall writes, “God who placed a measure of His eternal nature in each of us, has not totally insulated us from eternity. Time is actually a parenthesis during which God contains rebellion. When all wills are once again subject to the will of God, time will end, and we will step out of the confines of our parenthesis and into the limitlessness of God’s eternity.”(page 206)

Time is only a parenthesis in the kingdom of God.

Kathy serves in many administrative roles in the branch and this is her first web post.