Because Time is No Healer

One of the reasons we have for believing that there is a Creator in whose image we have been made is our desire to go about creating. And, one of the reasons we have for believing that our relationship to this Creator is in a bit of a mess is that the things God creates, He delights over, whereas the things we create often ruin us.

Take the humble watch. Its invention was a great way to regulate our work and social life. But today we find ourselves enslaved by its ticking. “It’s ten past, quick, we are gonna be late.” “This took you two hours! It should have taken you no more than ten minutes.”

Yes, we are good at advancing our technology, but these technologies often end up enslaving us.

How many of us live our daily lives under the browbeating tick-tock of that overlord, the clock? Once we make gods of clocks, it’s not long before we start attributing to them all kinds of supernatural powers.

Take the healing of our emotional scars as an example. We say, “Time heals all wounds,”

We often think this way about the sins we commit or the grief we face in the midst of tragedy. Given enough time, we hope that the pain, guilt or shame we experience will begin to fade. And, truth be told, it does seem to feel that way.

The mother who grieves the loss of a newborn child often finds that over time she learns to live again. The man who loses his wife really does find that over time, he can learn to love again.

But was this the magic of Dr Time? Can time really heal our wounds? Is time among the gods? Can it fix things? Does time have hands to bind the broken-hearted? Can it mend bones? Does it raise the dead?

Time may provide an opportunity for us to conceal our misdeeds. It may create an opportunity to fill our lives with other, more pleasant things to balance the scales. It may give us an opportunity to grow and learn to live with our discomfort. But time is no Saviour.

At best, time just provides an opportunity to develop a layer of scar tissue.

Here’s the rub. No amount of time lessens our guilt before God. Time can’t heal the rift between man and His Creator. Time does not diminish the deadly price that rests on our heads for past sin. In the end, our wounds turn out to be fatal and we die.

No, time cannot heal – But grace can. Forgiveness can.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

In His own time, God has provided us with a Saviour who came to take away our sin and reconcile us to each other and with God.

He made forgiveness and the mending of our broken hearts possible by coming into this world and taking the wounds upon Himself.