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The dictionary defines “a year” simply as a period of time. The particulars of it depend on what kind of calendar you use and even perhaps what planet you are on. However it is specifically measured, of all the various measures of time, seems there is something unique about … a year.
Everyone talks about the days that go by, weeks and months too. But when we talk about the years passing by, very different images and emotions begin to rise up in us. What those emotions are I guess depends on how we view the passing years. If you view the years with gratefulness and appreciation for having been given them, the emotions that rise up will be good ones. Even if all did not go as planned, seeing the years one has been given through the eyes of what WAS accomplished and lived, rather than through the eyes of what was MISSED, can change your whole outlook on … years. It really is amazing how we can evaluate our entire lives based on how we see this particular measurement of time; on how we see the years.
Of course, it is not just the years behind us that create a perspective. How we view the years ahead play a role in that as well. Regardless of how many years you perceive lie ahead of you, how one views them can be more important than how many there actually are. We are given all sorts of ways to measure time. Yet, how we see the “years” of our life tends to impact us more than how we see the days, weeks, or months.
But when we look upward for help on this, we turn to the Eternal One for whom time is irrelevant. You see time, whether it be how much has occurred or how much is left, is meaningless in His presence. This is primarily because He is timeless. For Him, past, present, or future are all the same. No one concept is of any greater value because He will always be the same. The passing of time doesn’t increase or decrease who He is, what He is capable of, or what opportunities are before Him.
Yet we are given a glimpse into how much the Lord understands. He really does. You see, we are given much encouragement to be productive and wise with our days. We are encouraged to not let one of them end while still angry. We are instructed to ask for our “daily bread” and to be thankful for the blessings He brings new and fresh every morning.
And, in the Old Testament, we get insight to God’s understanding of the human condition as it pertains to the “years” of our life. We are told “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten …” – Joel 2:25a (NKJV). You see, it is one thing to have “days” eaten away, or even “weeks” or “months.” But a unique difficulty sets within us when we feel that years have been wasted; have been eaten away. But here we are reminded, by the One for whom time is no concern, that He can restore the meaning and value of those years in our time bound existence. Here we are not just promised the restoration of days but of years!
No matter what you have experienced in life, no matter how much of your life has been efficiently or effectively lived, God can bring value, purpose, and meaning to its entirety. The years that comprise it, regardless of how they were utilized, can be seen as a springboard into the years that still await you – when they are placed in His hands by faith.
“… I will restore to you the years …” There is no balm more soothing to an aching soul than to know that one’s past years need not dominate or control the years that are still to come.
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