The Pastor’s Piece, Pastor Kevin Cernek – FCFI Chaplain

FCFI

December 29,2024

“The Face Of Time”

Another year has wound down and a new one has begun. Saying that seems odd because nothing winds down anymore – mainly because we don’t wind anything up. We used to wind our watches everyday. I remember when they first came out with the fancy watches that not only had the hands of time on its face, but the date and the day of the week. At the end of each month you had to reset the day and date by spinning the hands around until the correct day lined up with the correct date. I remember when we got my grandpa a self-winding watch one year for his birthday. It didn’t have to be wound and it didn’t have a battery (watches didn’t have batteries back then). It was also called an automatic watch. It was a mechanical watch where the natural motion of the wearer provided the energy to wind the mainspring, making manual winding unnecessary if worn enough. It was also high-tech for its day. Grandpa loved it because his arthritis made it difficult for him to wind his watch. (And also because his grandkids gave it to him).

My first watch was a pocket watch, which I wore proudly in the watch pocket on my jeans or bib overalls. On the overalls, it was a small pocket sewed in-between the two large pockets on the front that snapped shut. The watch was attached to a short leather strap (or string) so if it fell out, it didn’t get lost. If I remember correctly, a run of the mill pocket watch cost about $1.99 back in the day. That was my wages the first year I worked for dad doing chores in the barn when I was about six years old. It was well worth it. I wish I still had that first watch.

We also had wind-up clocks on our nightstands. Every night before I jumped into bed, I would wind up my alarm clock and be lured to sleep by the constant, gentle sound of tick tock tick tock. The fancy wind-up clocks had illuminated hands so you could read them in the dark. Of course, when you woke up in the night, you had to focus your eyes and study the clock for a few seconds to determine which hand was which so as to know what time it was. We had an electric clock in the kitchen with a built-in light and a plug-in hidden behind it. Mom or Dad could get up at any time in the night and with a simple glance know what time it was and what time we came in.

On Sunday morning we offer coffee and donuts and food of all kinds at our church. We never know what people will bring in, but they usually go home with an empty dish. A few of us arrive at church early and get the place opened up, the lights on, and heat turned up. In the process we enjoy a cup of coffee and time together catching up on our families and such. We also do quite a bit of laughing. We used to arrive at 7:30. Then it was 7:00. Now it’s 6:45 or sooner. There isn’t enough time.

I had breakfast with my mom and some of my brothers the other day. Mom is 3 months shy of 90. She’s a little slower and gets weary a little sooner than she used to, but she is doing well. Our time together was fun. We reminisced about years past, aunts, uncles, cousins, injuries, places we used to live, years and dates, her parents and things like that. Then everyone came to our house and had a piece of my wife’s homemade apple pie topped with ice cream. It was a nice little cap on the holiday.

My high school Biology teacher, Mr. Taylor had a sign under the clock in his room that said: “Time will pass. Will you?”

A year goes by so fast that it hardly seems an adequate measure of one’s life. Here’s wishing you the best of everything in 2025.