Time Flies

When I was 10 I went to this kid's birthday party at Stomping Grounds. If you know what Stomping Grounds was, represent. If not, it was a massive indoor playground/arcade/pizza place, much like Chuck E. Cheese. I went in to the playground knowing that I had 2 hours to play. The next thing I knew, it was time to go. As a 10 year old kid, I thought to myself "so that's what they mean when they say 'time flies when you're having fun.'" I learned an important principle of life and felt kind of cool for understanding such a grown-up thing.

As adults, we might not have the same reaction to Stomping Grounds (I mean, I would, but many adults would not). We are more likely to find time flying while we are dancing the night away in cool bars, staying up late talking with friends over cocktails, or just generally partying in any way, shape, or form. Sometimes being a designated driver, or waiting for the ball to drop on New Year's Eve are the only thing that can keep us aware of the time when we're having fun. There are far more pressing concerns than the time, like who's going on a beer run, what drinks can we make, who was the most insufferable during college (me), and who would win in a fight: 10 squirrel-sized tigers or one tiger-sized squirrel.

So, kids enter time warp on the playground, adults at parties, what about God? What makes time fly by for God? The answer, according to scripture, is spending time with us. Just read Psalm 90: "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations^. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." It goes on to say that a thousand ages, to God, are like just one day. That's a crazy ratio. Usually, this verse is interpreted as talking about how big and impressive God is. This is fine, but I prefer to interpret as saying that God is having a great time.

God having a little fun

It appears that God loves dwelling with us and creating a world for us so much that even God loses track of time. A thousand ages of faithfulness to human beings feels like just a day to God. God must like Her job, after all, God is God "from everlasting to everlasting" which means that it never gets boring. If God was bored or impatient with us, Psalm 90 would say "ugh, why did I make you dang people? I'm just watching the clock waiting for you to leave."

But wait, people are often terrible and, even more often, boring. That's what we think, but the fact that God has fun with us says a lot about God. My mother used to tell us kids "only boring people get bored." That is, an exciting, fun person can make any situation fun because fun is about the way that your soul is set up. So God must be even more fun and cool than we can possibly imagine. We may find our lives dismal and boring. We may lose faith in humanity. We may want to give up, but God is having a great time and He's not going anywhere. Creation is like a Chuck E. Cheese that God made for Herself and invited us all to a never-ending party there.

Hahahaha

This week's drink is pretty and fun, just like God's creation.

Holy Hand Grenadine

Ingredients: ~1 oz. grenadine syrup, ~6 oz. orange juice, 1 shot white rum, splash cranberry liqueur

Combine white rum and orange juice over ice. Put a small funnel in the drink and pour grenadine syrup in the funnel so it falls directly to the bottom. Splash cranberry liqueur on top and watch it sink down.