Shopping trips and tree trims,

Christmas at home, party at work,

In-laws and relatives,

Cookies to make, deliveries to take,

New Year’s Eve and Bowl games,

School buses and work again.

Time flies! Another year has passed. The New Year’s resolution remains undone, along with the project started last January. Give me another hour in the day … give me another day in the week! The holidays reinforce the reality of the adage: Time is precious!

We try to make time for the important things but sometimes … a holiday invitation to lonely Uncle Joe slips our mind ... the “some assembly required” toys still need assembly … the phone call to Mom is forgotten. How saddened and embarrassed we would be to forget a relative at the holidays.

Our busy life can crowd out very important things in our lives. When the holidays come around, it gets even worse. We forget the little promises to our children. We barely see our spouse as we rush out of the house. We abandon quality time, much less quantity time, because we can barely spend any time at all.

Our God understands this dilemma. Our Heavenly Father has “determined the times set for (people) and the exact places where they should live” (Acts 17:26). Our time is in God’s hands. He gave us life so that we would have time to enjoy his creation and all of his blessings.

Above all he gave us time to get to know him. “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26-27). He wants us to know him as more than a righteous judge of sin. He does not only judge us; he also “came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Christ Jesus used his 33 years for us. Although he knows about time from the perspective of the Creator of time, as one of us Jesus understands how important time is from our perspective. He used his time to give us more time with God. He gave his life to give us “forever and ever.”

Now that the holidays are over, carve out a little time for your heavenly Father. He says, “Now is the time of God’s favor; now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Your heavenly Father always has time for you.

Don’t let precious time slip away on you. Make time for your forgiving God.