By Rev. Stephanie Johnson
A few weeks ago we experienced a beautiful snow that melted on the roads and twinkled brightly on the trees and grass, creating a sense of living in a snow globe. In the very same week as winter flourished, spring seemed to appear with cardinals, blue jays and chipmunks frolicking in my backyard. The seasons used to be a predictable marker of time but that no longer seems to hold true. Recently the passage of time, like the seasons, seems to be chaotic and unexpected.
Like most people, I imagine, I like to try to make sense of my life chronologically. One thing follows after another. Life can be orderly, or appear to be so, if we mark time by the seasons of our lives – school age, teen years, middle aged and senior years. The seasons should be ordered and consistent with predicable weather patterns.
Yet in these past two years, time itself seems to have turned upside down, even sideways. Days in lockdown seemed often like weeks, and weeks like months. Lack of a clear schedule made all of our days blur into each other.
Many people have begun to speak in terms of the time before the pandemic, pandemic time and now (hopefully) post pandemic. For many, the tragedy of COVID in the loss of a loved one will forever be marked as pandemic times. For those who are struggling with long COVID, their pandemic season will sadly last longer.
We are all longing for time to right itself. News of decreasing COVID cases combined with the lessening of safety restrictions have offered signs that we may be entering a new but normal time. Excitement about Billy Joel headlining the Greenwich Town Party (and some dismay for those who haven’t gotten tickets!) has been building as we turn our thoughts to a hopefully normal summertime.
Through all these uncertain and topsy-turvy times, I’ve turned my thoughts to God’s time. Kairos is a Greek word that suggests the opportune time. Kairos is the in-breaking of the Spirit into our lives and days. It’s a reminder that God has been present in all our times, from the beginning of the world as told in the Book of Genesis through today. I remain convinced, through my faith, that God has never left us or any other people throughout the history, even as we have all struggled with tragedy, fear and instability. God’s time is infinite and undefined.
Of equal importance, every season of our lives has meaning and significance in the order of God’s time. The familiar passage in the Book of Ecclesiastes (3:1) frames this as “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Here the unnamed author, referred to as “Qohelet” or the preacher, states that nothing is out of order in God’s presence. Qohelet continues to remind us that the sequence of life is always in balance, even if it’s not in the human construct of chronological order which we might demand or wish for. There is the correct and proper “time to be born, and time to die (3;2); time to plant, and time to pluck up what is planted (3;3); and “a time to mourn and a time to dance” (3:5). I find comfort that, with our eyes and hearts focused on God, time will unfold in ways that are purposeful and meaningful.
I am also deeply grateful that, as the author of Ecclesiastes invites us to consider, God has blessed us with “days of life under the sun” (8:15) to enjoy and live fully. May it be so that we flourish in whatever time and season of our life and world we are in today.
The Reverend Stephanie M. Johnson is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Riverside.
