Life In An Hour Glass

"Like sands through an hourglass, these are the days of our lives.”
(Macdonald Carey, welcoming viewers to the “Days of Our Lives”)

Psalm 39:4-5: O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!

As a young child, I was always fascinated by an hour glass, as it so vividly portrayed the passing of 60 minutes in a physical way. Anytime I was caught up playing my childish games by myself or with others, I was not aware of time, but when I could just sit there and watch those grains of sand drop down (supposedly 100 grains per second), I could grasp how one hour could pass so quickly.

Now, as an older guy very aware of how the number of grains of sand left in my life’s hour glass is running low, it is easy to visualize how soon the end could be here. The "sands of time" will run out for my human life and I will die physically.

That other great philosopher Yogi Berra was famous for telling sports reporters about a current season he was in, “It ain’t over till it’s over”. I would like to add this to our context today….”Our season of life ain’t over till it’s over, but when it’s over, it’s over”.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die…

1 Peter 4:5: But they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

So now, I am even more fascinated how my whole life can be symbolized by a specific and limited number of grains of sand slipping through one side of the hourglass to the other in a flash. One wise man said, “The hourglass concretely represents the present as being between the past and the future, and this has made it an enduring symbol of time itself.”

James 4:13-15: Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Proverbs 27:1: Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

There are a finite number of seconds, minutes, hours, and days in each of our lives. My life’s hour glass started the moment I was conceived in the womb and the grains have been falling ever since. There is no way to pause them or stop them. Each day that I live is gone forever. Only God knows how many grains of sand He placed into my life’s hour glass, but He knows when the last grain will fall, and has given me the responsibility to make the most of them. We call that “stewardship”.

Psalm 139:16: Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Ecclesiastes 9:10: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in the grave, to which you are going.

As one philosopher put it, “Our days are like this. They begin as seconds, then minutes, as hours, then days. Weeks turn into months and months into years. Finally, we find ourselves old and we wonder how swiftly time flew by. Then we realize we have not made much of the opportunities that came by.”

Ephesians 5:15-17: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Or as J.R.R. Tolkien said, “All we can do is decide what to do with the time that is given us”.

1 Peter 1:17: Conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.

Kevin Dowd said, “The grains of sand run through the glass without stopping, illustrating that the end is increasingly near. Unlike the clock with its endless cycles, the hourglass has a definite limit. Time is running out! What would change if we could see our time running out before our very eyes? What would we concentrate on? What decisions would we make? What would be our priorities?”

What if you had an hour glass type instrument at your home that contained the exact number of grains of sand that represented your precise lifespan on earth - down to the second? You could literally watch and see and be conscious of how much of your life has gone by already and exactly how much is left? Would you like that? Would that be helpful?

Deuteronomy 32:29: Would that they were wise, that they understood this…That they would discern their future!

Did you ever wonder exactly how many grains of sand there are in an hour glass? One mathematician worked out this formula for you to use to solve that question. Let me know how it goes. There may be multiple spiritual applications inside this formula.

Diameter of a grain of sand = 0.2 mm Volume of a grain of sand = 0.0042 mm^3 Volume of bounding box = 0.008 mm^3 Volume of a 3 minute times = 2 cm^3 = 2000 mm^3 Grains of sand in a 3 min timer = 2,000/0.008 = 250,000 grains Grains of sand in a 1 hour timer = 250,000 x 60 / 3 = 5,000,000

But it is also reported that all methods of computations were linked to various variables, like the grain size of the sand, the thickness of the glass, the size of the hole that the sand sifts through. One Christian blogger named Flora Jones put it like this:

I decided to use the 60 minutes = 1 hour method based upon Psalm 90:10&12: “As the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow. For soon it is gone and we fly away. So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” If I have lived seventy years (365days/year X 24hours/day X 70), 613,200 hours. Now I consider myself a strong woman, so I am going to speculate that I will live another 10 years. Using the same formula above, I have calculated that I have, from my 70th birthday, 87,600 hours remaining in my hourglass of life.

The Ancient Greeks had two words for time and both have meaning for the hourglass of life concept or analogy. The two words are “Chronos” and “Kairos”.
(From: https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/08/14/ancient-greeks-two-word-time/)

• Chronos refers to minutes and seconds. It refers to time as a measurable resource.
• Kairos means an appointed time, an opportune moment, or a due season.

Chronos = sequential, quantitative time {the root for the English words “chronological” and “chronicle”)…refers to measured, ticking, quantitative time or the forward propelling time that we measure with clocks, on watches.

Kairos = fluctuating, qualitative time. “Kairos” is what many philosophers and mystics would refer to as “deep time”. This is the time we’re talking about where the world seems to stop entirely. It can be measured in deep exhales, a shared laugh, or by a colorful sunset. Insert your version here. It is qualitative time where you have the opportunity to move forward in the present, untethered by any moving clock or calendar.

Therefore, “Chronos” can represent the falling grains of sand from the top of the hourglass to the bottom of it, where your life is ticking away and propelling forward chronologically, one second at a time. “Kairos” can represent what you do with the seconds and minutes inside your hourglass of life or how you use those seconds and minutes.

What does God say will happen when we have used up the time He has given on this earth? What happens when that time is over and we have reached the finish line? What happens when we get to the bottom of our hourglass and see the sign that says “The End” or “Dead End” (you cannot go any further in this life). Well, who can say it better than God can….see below.

Hebrews 9:27-28: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment.

Amos 4:12: Prepare to meet your God…

Job 14:5: Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with You, and You have appointed his limits that he cannot pass….

Ecclesiastes 7:2: Death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.

Psalm 103:15-16: As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

2 Corinthians 6:2: For He says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.{The day to get saved!}

Yours in Christ,
Gene