Time in a Bottle...the Wayfarer 7/10/17


Image result for genie in a bottle art


Time in a Bottle

7/10/17

Psalm 119:89

King James Version (KJV)

89 For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.


Once again a melody and its accompanying lyrics from another time rings stridently from the past in reminder of a thing called time, and mankind's inability to press a pause button as its passage continues toward the inevitable end of that which we measure in seconds, minutes, hours; days, weeks, years, centuries and millennia.
It is, indeed a precious commodity, as we attempt to measure it and parcel it out... planning schedules in advance that may, or may not be allocated within the confines of its allowance that is allocated only by God Himself.


The author of that melody and lyrics found that allocation to be far shorter than what was realized at the time of its writing, schedules curtailed as planning ceased forever, and a voice was silenced as the allowance granted it  came to its predetermined end.


Time in a Bottle
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
'Til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with
If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with



The writer wrote of earthly things, earthly experiences that were joyful, with a sadness of the foreknowledge that time cannot be held in abeyance, and that those temporary joys shared by men are exactly that... temporary.

At the time of the writing, he looked to a future that he thought to hold promise. He was looking forward to the birth of a child he would not live to see grow, and share even more of that joy with.

Despite the beauty of melody, and the rich depth of the lyrics, the sentiment expressed was, and remains one of regret rather than one of the joy intended to be conveyed.

This brings me to another melody and set of lyrics that I have addressed before, one also conveying that same regret of man's ineptitude to hold back the flow of the river of time that cannot be contained, and the fact that as that flow continues, temporal things and temporal relationships are subject to the change demanded by a temporal and temporary world inhabited by bodies containing an eternal soul bound for an eternal destination, determined while the allowance of that time continues, whether that time is wisely used, or whether it is wasted in pursuit of the temporary.


Hold to God's unchanging hand

Time is filled with swift transition,
Naught of earth unmoved can stand,
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand. 

Refrain:
Hold to God’s unchanging hand,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand;
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

Trust in Him who will not leave you,
Whatsoever years may bring,
If by earthly friends forsaken
Still more closely to Him cling.
Covet not this world’s vain riches
That so rapidly decay,

Whereas the author of the first melody and lyrics spoke of a time when eternity passes away, the author of the second recognize that eternity is eternal.

By virtue of that eternal quality, there is no passage of time upon its arrival. 

The opening verse of scripture spoke of that eternity, and what exists beyond the bounds of the temporary being experienced while confined to the temporary nature of a world that remains unsettled as men try to change the unchangeable, often without comprehension of the unchangeable nature of God, and the unchangeable nature of the soul of man once beyond the curtain between the temporary and the eternal.

Hopes based on the temporary, can only remain temporary, joys found in the temporary may only remain equally temporary.

Hopes based on the temporary, schedules planned based on the temporary, lives based on the temporary cannot, and will not exceed man's inability to " put time in a bottle".

As those bottles are poured out, or shattered, that contained within them will inevitably spill, evaporate, eventually leaving only the evidence of their having existed in the short memories of an ever more forgetful creature continuing to seek eternal treasures that are not contained in a temporary world.

What is placed within those bottles  is determined by the possessor of the one that fills them continually from the temporary springs they seek.

Hopes based on the eternal cannot be contained in temporary bottles, but are contained only within the eternal vessel of the soul itself.

Joys based on the eternal may not be contained in temporary bottles, nor secured by temporary means, nor may they be spilled and evaporate as their nature remains eternal and unchanging as well.

What is sought is that which shall be found, whether temporary or eternal.

What is sought brings with it either of a temporary nature and the changeability that assures change to the unsought as well, or the eternal, and assurance of the unchangeable as well.


Hebrews 13:8
8Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Jesus, born of a virgin, living as a human man among humanity, ministering through that life and through the miracles, teachings, and guidance to this temporal creature, remains eternal despite the rejection of a people  who could not see beyond time. 

His resurrection remains proof  of the eternal, and that which awaits  once the bottles are emptied of their content, either to evaporate leaving their dregs, or to remain in tact, never having been held captive within that bottle.

The author of the first melody and lyrics bemoaned the fact that " there never seems to be enough time". 

There will always be enough time, once time is crossed into eternity to continue to bemoan the lack of time well spent, or to continue in the joy of that time as it never ceases to exist in the presence of JOY itself, of LOVE itself, of GOD Himself!

The transition of time cannot corrupt nor contain that joy.

I have no bottle in which time may be stored, nor do I need one.

I pray that each reached may say the same.

2 Timothy 1:12
12For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.


Amen and Amen
the Wayfarer



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