Do we wear watches these days? Is the wrist watch going out of business?
What are the implications of such a possibility? As insignificant as this thought is, For fun I feel like taking a moment to consider it.
As a youth I remember a great fashion and function progression of wrist worn timepieces. The first was the cracker jack styled toy watch that told time as good as gravity could. This was fun until I grew and the swatch became the thing to sport. Available in many styles and colors, it was hot for a while. Then at a certain age my inner nerd took over and it was “time” for a Casio calculator watch. Ever since that day, I’ve made a clear crossover to multifunctionality over fashion. As someone who loves cramming as much into a container and squeezing as much out as possible, something about my wrist space being able to handle more tasks just lit me up.
Others of you might have succumb to slap watches, fine jewelry time pieces or just a classy looking Fossil or the like. Now take a look around… What is everybody wearing? Is it a slick leather strap passed down from grandpa? Is it a chain piece with tarnished chrome or faded gold? What are you wearing? Looking around in the Starbucks where I write this, I don’t see a single person sporting one.
Oh strike that, a woman just entered with a $100 variety silver piece that matches her other accessories.
In our new age of cell phones, iPods, iPads, we are all living in a different operating system. It is not that time has become less important. Quite the opposite— we stress out and push ourselves to the brink of exhaustion in efforts to get more done in less time. Time and life management resources are some of the best selling nonfiction materials out there. We just look at time differently.
Literally, we LOOK at it differently. Rather than a wrist watch, we have our other pocket handy devices. We also don’t always need to keep our eyes on it as much. Many of us with devices have it all on schedule. Rather than monitoring it we have it all systematized. At noon the alarm sounds to remind John to head to his lunch meeting. At 8:00 Claire’s phone dings her to leave the outing with a friend to be home to put her daughter to bed. These might seem like extreme examples to some, but I guarantee you someone reading this has alarms set for these items. I know because, I used to. I don’t say used to like a sickness I’ve been cured of but as a previous season in my life.
I am not writing this to inspire you to search the wrists of your friends and neighbors and shake your heads in disgust. I am writing to just point out another example of the amazing evolving nature of life. I love witnessing what used to be and comparing to what is and what will be. Looking at this progression, it is still impossible to predict anything except the fact that nothing stays forever.
However, in the words of my favorite song from Sunday morning worship this past Sunday, “One Thing Remains.” God’s love will always stay the same. There is no progression. There is no evolution of His faithfulness. It’s not trendy or fickle like technology and worldly fads, but constant and dependable.
As we track our lives by the time we spend, no matter what device we use, He the creator of time, gauges us by the son and our relationship with him.
I guess that means the only dependable time piece is the “Son”dial?
Just out of curiosity what do you use these days to keep track of the time?