My times are in your hands...

There's a prayer in the psalms of the Bible that includes the phrase, "My times are in your hands," and I found myself wondering what it actually means in the original Hebrew.

Does it mean that the length of my lifetime is in God's hands? Does it mean that He lovingly orchestrates the seasons of my life? Is He watching over my hours and my days, seeing my choices and encouraging me in the good ones? Does it mean that He supervises the timing of things that happen in my life?

The Hebrew word ʿēṯ can be understood to mean all of those things; it's also sometimes used to refer to our fortunes or misfortunes - not to say that God pre-ordains misfortunes for us, but rather to say that even those hard situations are in His hands too.

I've been thinking a lot this week about "timing." My many weeks of fruitless search for a new place to live have left me this week with an awareness of a deadline approaching and almost a feeling of "time running out" if I've to move house at the end of the month.

Then there's my parents' situation. After months in temporary accommodation, they were to move today to their new home. Their belongings were transported yesterday, a hospital bed and hoist are already installed... and an ambulance was to transport my Dad today to his new home. So it seemed singularly bad timing when Dad took a turn for the worse yesterday and the doctor said he was too weak to be moved. Now it's beginning to look as if he will never in fact move to the new home that was bought with his disabled needs in mind.

I believe that God does sometimes intervene sovereignly to plan the "perfect timing" of our lives... but I know that's not necessarily always the case. Sometimes the timing of things is just due to circumstances beyond our control and the outcome can feel either good or bad.  It's part of living in a fallen world.

And so I'm flying to Scotland today... in the anticipation that Dad may not have much time left. It makes the timing of my house hunting feel out of sync; I was hoping to find a new home before now, so that when I went to the UK it would be without having to wonder where I'd be living when I got back.  But it hasn't worked out that way.. and yesterday I needed to write to my landlord, asking him to grant me a time extension in my present home if I'm not back in time to find a new home before the end of the month.

But even when the timing feels bad or wrong.... God is not out of the picture. Our times are still in His hands and the Bible tells us that He will work to turn everything to good in the end - even the hard and painful things - for those who love Him.