The Thief We Welcome
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
Psalm 90:12
Some thoughts are born from hours of study.
Others are born in the middle of an ordinary moment when God causes you to see something you have overlooked your entire life.
That is how this thought came to me.
Tonight, I was talking with my daughter. It was just a normal conversation, one of those moments we often take for granted. But somewhere in the middle of that conversation, a thought entered my mind that I could not shake:
Time is the only thief everyone welcomes.
The more I thought about it, the more unsettling it became.
Because it is true.
We spend our lives protecting the things we own.
We lock our doors.
We guard our possessions.
We insure our homes.
We protect our treasures.
But there is one thief that never has to sneak in.
One thief that never has to break a window.
One thief that we invite into our lives every morning.
We call him Time.
We hang clocks on our walls.
We wear watches on our wrists.
We check our phones hundreds of times a day.
We celebrate birthdays with candles and laughter, never stopping to consider the strange reality that every birthday is also a reminder that another year has disappeared forever.
We celebrate the very thing that is carrying us closer to the end of our earthly journey.
Time never runs through our homes in the darkness.
It never forces open a door.
It never announces what it has taken.
It simply walks quietly beside us.
And while we are making plans for tomorrow, it is gently carrying yesterday away.
Time steals things we never thought we would lose.
It steals childhood.
It steals the sound of voices we once heard every day.
It steals moments we wish we could return to.
It steals opportunities we thought we would always have.
It steals our strength.
It steals our youth.
It takes people we thought would always be there.
And eventually...
it comes for our final breath.
The haunting thing about time is that it never gives back what it takes.
You cannot buy back yesterday.
You cannot negotiate with a clock.
No king has ever commanded the sun to stop rising.
No wealthy person has ever purchased one more hour.
No human being has ever defeated time.
Every generation discovers the same truth:
We are visitors here.
We are passing through.
Yet the most fascinating thing about time is that it was never meant to be our master.
Before there was a sunrise...
before there were seasons...
before there were calendars or clocks...
there was God.
Time had a beginning because God created it.
But God Himself exists beyond it.
And then something beyond human understanding happened.
The Creator stepped into His creation.
The One who existed before time entered time.
Jesus Christ walked among us.
The eternal Son of God experienced the passing of days just as we do.
He knew hunger.
He knew exhaustion.
He knew grief.
He knew the pain of watching people He loved suffer.
He lived beneath the same clock that reminds us all of our mortality.
And eventually...
time led Him to a cross.
For a moment, it appeared that time had won.
The One who gave life was placed in a tomb.
The grave seemed victorious.
Death seemed final.
The disciples saw their hope disappear.
The world became silent.
But the grave made a mistake.
It tried to hold the One who created it.
And it failed.
Because eternity stepped into time.
And time could not hold Him.
The stone was rolled away.
Death was defeated.
The resurrection proved that the clock does not have the final word.
That changes everything.
Because time may still take things from us.
It may take our strength.
It may take our possessions.
It may take the people we love.
It may eventually take our earthly lives.
But there is one thing time cannot steal.
It cannot steal what God has redeemed.
It cannot erase His promises.
It cannot reach into eternity and take away what Christ has secured.
For the believer, time is not simply a countdown to death.
It is a journey toward home.
A day is coming when the last sunrise on earth will fade, and the first glimpse of eternity will begin.
A day when faith becomes sight.
A day when every promise of God becomes reality.
But here is the thought that should cause every person—believer and unbeliever alike—to stop and consider:
Time will end for everyone.
Not just for those who believe.
Not just for those who reject God.
Every person who has ever lived will eventually step beyond the boundary of time.
The rich and the poor.
The powerful and the forgotten.
The religious and the rebellious.
The person who spent a lifetime seeking God...
and the person who spent a lifetime running from Him.
Every soul will enter eternity.
The question is not whether eternity is coming.
It is.
The question is:
Are we ready for it?
We spend so much of our lives preparing for things that will eventually disappear.
We prepare for careers that end.
We collect possessions that rust.
We chase accomplishments that one day someone else will forget.
We spend years planning for retirement, vacations, and earthly comfort...
but how often do we prepare for the one appointment none of us can cancel?
The appointment with eternity.
Jesus asked a question that still echoes across every generation:
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
— Mark 8:36
That is the question time forces us to answer.
Because time is not the final destination.
It is only the doorway.
The thief we welcome is coming for all of us.
It does not matter how successful we are.
It does not matter how much we own.
It does not matter how many people know our name.
Time is patient.
Time is undefeated.
Time will eventually take its final treasure from every person:
our last breath.
But when time releases us...
eternity begins.
And in that moment, there will be no more pretending.
No more distractions.
No more excuses.
No more opportunities to go back and change what we ignored.
The clock will stop.
The calendar will close.
The door will open.
And every soul will discover that time was never the end of the story.
It was only the road that led us there.
So perhaps the greatest question is not:
"How much time do I have left?"
Because none of us truly knows.
Perhaps the question is:
"What am I doing with the time God has given me?"
Because the thief we all welcome is coming.
But the Savior who conquered time is offering something far greater.
Not another year.
Not another decade.
Not merely more time.
He offers eternity.
~~JHF
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