It was seemingly fitting to listen to the Hamilton musical while doing my family history project, I have been scanning and copying precious letters from my family history, and even though it’s like an unknown payoff of taking my time, it’s ONLY time, and only a matter of time, plus just a brief moment of time in the big scheme of life. And this slice of life is worth it, I just feel it. A good project in the AC at night. And at the same time as my scanning, the actress speaks on TV over my shoulder the last words of the Hamilton musical, it’s a breathtaking moment and she (Eliza) sings: “And when my time is up, have I done enough? Will they tell my story?… Oh I can’t wait to see you again It’s only a matter of time…”
Yes, time – I feel this level of bringing these people’s history alive, their memories, and my excitement for meeting them again in heaven IS worth the TIME. It’s JUST a matter of TIME.
While scanning, I’ve been reading them and interacting with the stories of them, I can feel the love and pain of their tales, relationships, hopes. Even when they talk about how Santa Claus will be for them and their little ones, it’s relatable. And these letters are over 100 years old but one can picture it, sometimes tragic things but not too over stated. They speak too of how time does fly by. These letters talk about going to the new talking movies, talk about the trolleys, about ice skates and hanging out on the NYC streets as kids as their normal activities in the 1920’s 1930’s… an older time… We forget the simplicity and yet the harshness of those times. They write in the depression of how bad times are. But that they still have their health. Except for the part of one cousin who got sick and wasted away, “You would have never known a year ago “… and the car that hit a cousin and his medical treatment free on Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island alongside Manhattan).
Well, more on time, I was thinking how much I still forget, yeah… I forget so much, we all do. And I don’t know or understand this reading from Zechariah, even if I read it before. That bothers me a bit but it shouldn’t because wow all of scripture is SO detailed, SO intense, and covers ALL of time, even the future – there’s no way to know it all. Zechariah is no less complex [Bible Project link below explaining these are dreams, prophecy, and God’s in charge of time – and much the rest is strange symbolic visions].
Yes, what I can gleen immediately from much/all scripture, including from Zechariah 14 (link below from Bible Gateway), IS THAT GOD WINS. GOD IS IN CHARGE. IT’S JUST A MATTER OF TIME. And God wants our devotion.
Yes, well even now, God is STILL in control.
God gives us so much, including time… it’s not for us to understand it all but know the underpinnings that God does, God is in charge, and God loves us.
And whatever happens in life, God will set it straight, it’s just a matter of time. It’s JUST time. God makes that happen or stop!
Amen
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Zechariah 14:1-9 NIV
The Lord Comes and Reigns
A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.
I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.
On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.
The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name. …
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Bible Project explains:
Debbie Upper 