PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

January 31, 2024

A WATCH IN THE NIGHT

Recently I received the World Book Year Book for 2010.  Over the last several weeks I have been reading through the entries.  When I am finished, I will shelf the new addition with my previous year books.  However, before I do I will remove the cross-reference tabs from the front page and paste them in the appropriate World Book volumes so that I will have the new information at hand when I might need it.

In reading through the year book I was struck by how many events that just happened last year seemed to have faded so far into my distant memory.  In fact, I was surprised that some of them had not occurred longer ago.

At the beginning of the book is a listing of the significant world events that occurred during 2010.  Several have been highlighted by the inclusion of a picture.  As I was looking at them, I thought to myself, “It was just last year they happened!”

Several of the featured events had captured the news media for days.  They included the earthquake in Haiti, the oil spill in the gulf, and the trapped miners in Chili.  The third of these occurred last October, just four months ago.  Looking back it seems years ago that the world waited to see if those who had been trapped would be rescued.

The World Book Annual has a section that lists those who died.  Persons that were noted for 2010 included Tom Bosley, Jimmy Dean, Eddie Fisher, Dick Francis, Peter Graves, Lena Horne, Art Linkletter, Don Merdith, Lynn Redgrave, Ron Santo, and John Wooden.  These are people whose lives span my own.  They have been a part of my life history.  In the course of just one year they have disappeared into the void of history.

The World Book Annual not only focuses on the past, but looks to the future.  The 2010 Annual has a section on plug-in cars with battery-powered motors.  There is information about WikilLeaks, the iPad, the London Times going online, the E-reader, and 3-D television.  The new addition contains articles on subjects that did not even exist when I bought the World Book Encyclopedia.

                For me the arrival of each new World Book Annual is a reminder of how quickly the present is fading into the long distant past and of how relentlessly the future is crashing into the present.  Time seems to be passing at a faster and faster pace.  There are times when it seems almost impossible to keep up.

Thousands of years ago the Psalmist put into words my thoughts when he wrote: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.  You turn us back to dust, and say, ‘Turn back, you mortals.’  For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.  You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.” (Psalm 90:1-6)

The World Book Annual is a yearly reminder that my life is but a watch in the night when compared with expanse of time.  Fortunately, the annual also picks up on another verse from Psalm 90: “So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.” (verse 12) The World Book Annual helps me to evaluate my days on this earth so that I might use the time I have more wisely.

As we live our watch in the night we would do well to listen to the closing words of Psalm 90.  “Let your work be manifest to Your servants, and Your glorious power to their children.  Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the works of our hands – O prosper the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:16, 17).

(This article was originally published February 20, 2011.  Comments may be sent to davidh15503@embarqmail.com.)