What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?

Did you ever play this game when you were a child? One lucky "fox" would stand at one end of the room, and all the other players would stand at the other end and shout, "What time is it, Mr. Fox?" Mr. Fox would tell the time (3 o'clock, 7 o'clock, 11, o'clock), and players would take that many steps (as big and wide of steps as they could!) in order to try to tag Mr. Fox at the other end of the room. Sometimes Mr. Fox would yell "Midnight!" and players would have to run back to the starting line before they got snatched up by Mr. Fox. It's a fun game! You should try it at home sometime.

Mr. Fox has me thinking about the book of Ecclesiates, and thinking about what time it is. In Eccesiastes 3, the author writes some beautiful poetry about time.

3For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6a time to seek, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
7a time to tear, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8a time to love, and a time to hate;a time for war, and a time for peace.

It can become easy to think that time should only be devoted to things that make us feel good...like loving, and laughing, and planting. But Ecclesiastes reminds us that in life we experience times of death and loss and weeping too. These are necessary times, and they can, in fact, be helpful times.

What time is it in your life right now? Have you made time for both the good and the bad?