I have always had an intense dislike for digital watches--especially those that beep. Perhaps it is my undergraduate training as a historian. A digital watch only tells us what time it is now. While it describes the present moment in exact numbers, it leaves out the past and the future.

Some of you know that my favorite clock is in my church office. It has the face of Jesus on it. While it does help me to be on time, it reminds me of another sense of time which is eternal.

Today, many Americans live only in the present; they are "digital livers." They want it all now. They want immediate gratification. They don''t want to wait for anything. But we serve a God who began things long ago and who will end things sometime in the future. Jesus was at the beginning, and he will usher in the end…