Tick tock, tick tock—grandfather clocks, chiming clocks, anniversary clocks, table clocks, handmade clocks, digital clocks, battery clocks—these are a few of the clocks ticking away in my home. Tick tock, tick tock…

At least that’s what they are supposed to do! Sometimes I think my days are spent keeping time going. My husband loved clocks and when he was here they never seemed to stop. Now that he’s gone, there’s always one or two silently demanding my attention. I attempt to keep them going because he loved them. Somehow, if the clocks are ticking and grandfather is chiming, I feel my husband is still around…

Clocks have been on my mind lately as the seconds and minutes turn into days, weeks, months, and years. Do you know that by the time a person reaches the age of 75, the clocks and watches of this world will have ticked away nearly 2.5 billion seconds! I know—trivia!

I was thinking about this when U.S. News announced that scientists had moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight. They cited unchecked climate change and the ongoing threat of nuclear weapons were the cause.

“It is now THREE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT,” said Kennette Benedict, the executive director and publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at a news conference in Washington, D.C. “The probability of global catastrophe is very high. This is about the end of civilization as we know it.”

In 1947, scientists created what was called the Doomsday Clock to symbolically show how close the world was to a nuclear holocaust. Each year, the board analyzes threats to humanity’s survival to decide where the clock’s hands should be set. In 1953, the hands were set to two minutes before midnight after the United States tested a hydrogen bomb. Since then the hands have been reset and pushed back more than 15 times. And on January 22, 2015, the Doomsday Clock was moved closer to midnight again—the closest it’s been since 1984 when the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was a major issue.

Now all this begs an answer to the question, can time actually be changed? The conundrum of time is that it’s always changing. Across this country are several time zones and still more around the world. Of course, we can’t forget the confusion of daylight savings time. I remember when I was a child it felt like an eternity from Christmas to Christmas. Now, it seems I just get the decorations put away and I have to get them out again. The clock seems to be ticking faster as I get older.

Okay, my nit-picky mind has now showed up and I’m thinking about God’s clock. There’s a lot about time in the Bible, five hundred references to be exact. Many of the verses say there is a time and place for everything. Throughout the ages, people have tried to foretell the future and set the hands of God’s clock by predicting the hour of Christ’s return. The Bible makes it clear that God has a timetable, but Christ said no one knows when the end of days will come except the Father.

So, there really is a ticking clock, but it’s not located in Washington D. C. or London or Texas. It cannot be changed by human hands like the Doomsday Clock. It’s an eternal clock in the hands of God Almighty. Someday, Jesus Christ will return. Someday, everything on this earth will be destroyed, but thanks to God, all things will also be made new.

So I ask myself, am I ready for that day?
While I am healthy in mind and body, did I make this day count? Did I start and end my day with Him? Did I do what God planned for me, what He has written in His Book? Am I making the most of the seconds, minutes, hours, and days that God has allotted me? Did I really value my time today, realizing that beyond earthly time lies eternity? Am I casting my shadow in eternity, or only in this fleeting world?

Tick tock, tick tock…