Genesis 5. At first glance, this is a chapter to skim. The names and numbers quickly run together, a list really, hardly a narrative. But every time I do read it, I marvel at the life spans of the earliest inhabitants of the earth. Having kids at 500. Living until age 777, 969. My brain can hardly comprehend.
What wisdom would you enter parenthood with at age 500? Or would you still feel as helpless as a 30-year-old dad holding his newborn for the first time? What was it like seeing your subsequent generations flourish and settle around you? Your grandkids’ grandkids’?
Of the list of people I can’t wait to talk to in heaven, Enoch and Methuselah are at the top. I want to know how Enoch was feeling as he was taken up by God. How does Methuselah feel to be the oldest human? Or look at the story of the Noah and the slow unfolding of building the ark, the flood, waiting for the waters to recede, and then finally emerging from their oceanic home.
Slow. Waiting. Lots of time passing. Time.
Our God is a God who is not hurried or bothered by the clock. He works his meticulous ways regardless of our calendar. But we want to push, prod, and provoke God to stay on our schedule. We’re talking about God who was content to wait 500 years before expanding a family. A God who had a 969-year plan for one of his servants.
God will not be rushed. The sooner we can settle down on the inside, the better it will go for us. Today, let’s take a deep breath and choose to not be at odds with time, but set our watches to God time.
