Time Flies

I often hear the comment, especially from older people, that the older they get the faster time seems to go by. I thought about that and realized there was a reason for it. I will give two illustrations.

The first illustration is based on a relationship to years lived. Let's say you are ten years old. Living one more year is like living one tenth of a lifetime. If you are forty years old and live one more year, that year seems like one fortieth of a lifetime causing that year to seem to go by much faster than when you were only ten. When you reach 80, one more year seems like one eightieth of a lifetime, which seems like eight times faster than when you were only ten.

As I thought about this phenomenon, another illustration came to mind. Consider a roll of toilet paper and let the full roll represent your life. As you tear off the sheets you need, at first it doesn't seem to change the size of the roll, but as you get near the end of the roll - the end of life - tearing off the sheets you need makes the roll seem to get smaller much faster. At my age, life is going by very fast and the distance to the cardboard center seems to be getting pretty small very quick. One of these days I am going to remove the sheets I need and I will come face to face with cardboard. Fortunately for me it will be face to face with the living God. How about you?

Each year, or each day, you live is in relationship to the length of time you have already lived. The older you are the shorter each day seems when compared to the life already lived. Those who lived before the great flood, who lived hundreds of years must have felt as those time was flying by.