Perfect timing

The other day I peeled a perfectly ripe peach.  The skin came off so easily; not a tear in the flesh, no skin left behind, no recourse to boiling water to help the process.  And how sweet and juicy it was!  Perfect timing, you might say.

My mind took me back to a warm October day on a Cypriot hillside.  I was exploring the sad ruins of one of the abandoned Turkish villages, a place where people had lived peaceably for generations until the time when politicians far away had agreed upon the partition of the island of Cyprus and they were forced to flee their homes.  There was a fig tree growing beside the broken down walls of one of the houses, and the fruit looked perfectly ripe.  I still remember how sweetly and easily the figs came away from the tree.  And the flavour!  Neither before nor since have I tasted such delectable figs.  Perfect timing again!

In God’s providence, His plans – whether in our individual lives or on a larger canvas – are not only ‘what’ and ‘where’ and ‘how’ but also ‘when’.  Past, present, future; all are in His hands.

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

                                                                                                          Galatians 4:4,5

But when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.   Romans 5:6

God now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.  He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.                                                                                                          Acts 17:30b-31

As for ourselves in the present: See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16)                                                                 

And as we wait for that day, the day when the Lord Jesus returns and time will be no more, may King David’s confidence be ours. 

But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord: I say, “You are my God.”  My times are in Your hand.

                                                                                      Psalm 31:14-15a

My times are in Thy hand:

My God, I wish them there;

My life, my friends, my soul I leave

Entirely to Thy care.

My times are in Thy hand,

Whatever they may be,

Pleasing or painful, dark or bright,

As best may seem to Thee.

My times are in Thy hand:

Why should I doubt or fear?

A Father’s hand will never cause

His child a needless tear.

My times are in Thy hand,

Jesus, the Crucified;

Those hands my cruel sins had pierced

Are now my guard and guide.

My times are in Thy hand:

I’ll always trust in Thee;

And, after death, at Thy right hand

I shall for ever be.

                             W F Lloyd