Answer: Anno Domini - The Year of Our Lord.
Why do we call it the Lord’s Year? Maybe so that we remember, whenever we write a date, that it is still the Lord’s day which He made and we can rejoice in it. Maybe so that we remember that we and all the time in our hands belong to God, and we are to use it for His glory and the good of our neighbor! G. Campbell Morgan wrote this reminder: “Let the year be given to God in its every moment! The year is made up of minutes: let these be watched as having been dedicated to God! It is in the sanctification of the small that hallowing of the large is secure.”
Time is a gift that, once it is used, can’t be brought back. We learn from mistakes so that we don’t waste time redoing the same mistake (at least that’s our goal!). Time is also so precious that people realize that time equals life on earth. When you breathe your last, “Time’s up!” Queen Elizabeth the First of England is recorded as saying on her deathbed, “All my possessions for a moment of time.” But as Christians, we truly know that time on earth is not the end. Time may be up when we die, or Christ returns, whichever is first, but for the child of God eternity is then fully realized! What a gift we have for people who are counting on time to do everything that they want to do instead of time to use for what God wants them to do. Time is so precious that it is often seen as more precious than money. Look and see how many checks are written instead of people volunteering time! Think about how you plan to use God’s time in A.D. 2009!
How sad it is when people see time only as the most precious gift and commodity, and don’t use it for the most important things in their lives – or only the the time to come to the dinner table. J.A. VanHorn said in Physics Today, “To the philosopher, time is one of the fundamental quantities. To the average man, time has something to do with dinner.” A better way to look at time as God’s gift is as E.A. Rountree said in the Watchman-Examiner, “God created time and gave it to us. It is His fundamental gift, for all other gifts are conditioned upon it. Why should we give it so grudgingly to His service? Why should we not lavish time upon the things that God knows and we know are the vital things.”
As we enter and go through Anno Domini 2009, may the question we ask of ourselves be, for the service of the time the Lord gives us for Him and others, “What does this have to do with my (or someone else’s) eternal salvation?”
Time to sign off for more service with you in our Savior’s kingdom,
Pastor John Gierke