Tick, Tick, Ticking Away…

After the last post, I think you may have gathered that I love clocks. I have always been fascinated by them. I like the sound of them ticking… tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick…

Maybe my mother, being a very creative lady and ahead of her time, no pun intended, put a clock in my crib when I was a baby in hope of lulling me to sleep with the rhythmic sound akin to a beating human heart. I don’t know if she was successful but I rather doubt it since I have always been awake and ready to start the day, hours before dawn… If memory serves, she employed this same method of calming with a young pup we had who liked to howl in the middle of the night… so who knows, perhaps the dog and I became conditioned early, to love this sound.

I suppose my love for clocks developed much later, after the death of my brother. Mark was my closest friend and confidant while growing up. He and I were only fifteen months apart; so of course we both loved and hated each other and yet we were always together. Whether we were singing happily arm in arm or fighting bitterly while playing cards, we were inseparable. If you were given a ‘friend’ sibling as I was, you know exactly what I mean. The reality of sibling friendship, especially during the early years, is never quite as picturesque as Elton John makes it seem in his song, “The Greatest Discovery”.

I remember the day when Mark gave me my first black eye. We had been arguing about some game with the neighborhood kids when we were about 8 and 10 years old and a tussle broke out. Mid-wrestle and being egged on by the other boys, I must say, he landed the perfect punch and there it was… the truth of our relationship was finally out… he was indeed stronger. I had suspected it, but until that moment, hadn’t wanted to face it or the fact that there were many things he would do better. He was younger after all, so it came as quite a shock for me. Mark was immediately sorry and tried to make up for it, but I wouldn’t have it. He did get in trouble, on many levels, which did assuage my youthful perception of justice, but at that point, our relationship changed and we grew to love and respect each other in different ways but as brother-boy and sister-girl.

As it turned out, Mark was not only stronger, but he did turn out to be smarter as well. It took him much longer to master reading than I, and even though he struggled initially, his intelligence grew and soon was far superior to mine. He excelled in math, science, logic, and philosophy which didn’t really hold my interest then.

Much later, after we were grown, I wanted so much for him. He did not always follow God or use his talents for Him as I felt he could and should. He was smarter, after all. When I found out he died and as I stood in front of his casket gazing on his young but dead body, I knew there would be no more moments to share together in this world. How important is time and each moment, only you can decide…
The ticking clock… each tick, each tock, reminds me that time matters… moments matter. And once they are gone, there are no more. A man’s life is but a breath and then it is gone.

Today is the day of grace, a moment in time for you to decide…

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55: 6-11).