What time is it?

I realised that the open door of the shed would blow back and forth with any breeze and I didn’t want it to become loose or bang and be damaged so I really needed a stone to keep it open.  I wanted a stone that was big enough to have enough weight not to move in any wind but also small enough for me to be able to pick up easily.  I found it amongst many other similar looking stones when I was digging over the garden.

I had used it many times for the purpose of keeping the shed door open but had never really looked closely at it.  After all, it’s only a stone.  Until the other day I noticed some markings on it so took a closer look.

I thought they looked rather like the marks of some prehistoric fossil.  I had earlier found a stone with markings that looked like an ammonite – a type of fossil - but didn’t take much notice of that either and can’t remember what I did with the stone or where I put it.  But it set me thinking.  Knowing that here in Yeovil we are not very far from the Dorset coast that is known as the Jurassic Coast where people go and walk along the beach looking for genuine fossils from the Jurassic age (some dinosaur fossils have been found there), I began to think that maybe in the far distant past dinosaurs may have roamed in my back garden!

Whether the imprints on the stone are from the prehistoric age or not, loads of thoughts about time and eternity came flooding into my mind.  We have been in this house now for 2 years and have seen some changes in the garden in that time but suddenly it all fell into insignificance in the light of the much bigger picture in terms of millions of years and back nearer the dawn of creation.  I marvel today at God’s creation but was in absolute awe thinking about God there at the beginning and all through the millennia.  How many things have changed on that plot of ground alone over those millions of years and yet God is the same.  He is the only constant in life and I couldn’t help but say ‘My times are in your hands’.  How can I not be at peace when this great, great God who created all things is also my loving and caring Dad and I know that in all things His timing is perfect for me.