STEALING TIME
The day is breaking like a shell,
And what is hatching who can tell?
For time is a mystery we can’t understand –
Years slip through our fingers and leave just an instant in our hand.
So let’s steal the dewy silver of the dawn,
Grab the gold from the midday sun,
Rob the sunset of her jeweled hues –
Stealing time and spending it on you.
The clock is ticking after noon.
How did the morning fly so soon?
For time is a river, a tugging undertow.
We swim against the current, but then we’re swept down in the flow.
The sky’s aglow at eventide.
A lovely day, my lovely bride!
Time is a treasure that we have on loan,
A present wrapped in moments that we can give, but never own.
“Stealing Time” is a meditation about time, and how mysterious and wonderful a gift it is. How is it that we can live for a century, and yet never really hold a single moment in our hands apart from the instant we call “now?”
The song was inspired by a short trip out in the country, an opportunity to get out from underneath the cloud of COVID fear that seems to hang over the whole world right now. My wife and I celebrated our 30th anniversary with a getaway that included kayaking down a river. It was like flowing down a living metaphor.
Those hours were as sweet as stolen fruit. But as the song suggests, time is never truly stolen; it’s a precious treasure that God has loaned us. We are simply stewards, not thieves, of our time here on earth. So I would say, not necessarily “Seize the day,” as savor the day and be thankful for it.
Stay tuned. I will soon post another song about the wonder of time, this one entitled “Eternity.”
Bill Maynard