“The days are long, but the years are short,” said our accountant. When Keith and I first met him thirteen years ago, he and his wife were still having babies. Now his two oldest children are in college, one “baby” is in high school, and the youngest is in middle school. 

Short means brief in time, or lacking an adequate amount, or short in length, distance, height or stature. All three meanings appear in Scripture.

Short in Stature

He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. Luke 19:3 NIV

Zacchaeus was curious but couldn’t see Jesus because he was short in stature. So, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to get a better view. Zacchaeus was a wealthy tax collector in Jericho and much despised because he extorted money and worked for the Romans. Despite his short stature and his community’s hatred for him—or maybe because of one or both—Jesus looked up when he reached the tree, called Zacchaeus by name, and announced that He would stay at his house that night. The people were shocked. Why would Jesus associate with a sinner, a tax collector, an extortionist? 

Because Zacchaeus’s heart changed. He repented and said he would make restitution, giving half his possessions to the poor and repaying four times over to those he had cheated. His turn toward Jesus saved him and his household. 

Salvation, which began with the blessing of being short.

Falling Short

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 NIV

Being short is quite different from falling short, the biggest of which was Adam and Eve’s. Upon their short-fall, sin became universal without exemption. All of us violate God’s moral law—His perfection, His divine standard, His glory—through our thoughts, words, or deeds. All the time.

Until I came to faith, I didn’t believe in sin, at least not mine. I wasn’t perfect, of course, but wanted to be, so I hid my imperfections as best I could. For me, falling short was more like making a mistake, but sinning was something else entirely. Me, a sinner? Nope, not me. I’m good and right and strong—even though I didn’t feel that way. Because all means all, and that includes Paul and me and everyone. We continually miss the mark. Part of me always knew that, and by trying to hide my imperfections, I ran into sin again and again. Part of me knew that, too.

Thank goodness for the truth Paul writes in the next verse: and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Now I know where to take my brokenness whenever I fall short. Which is all the time.

Time is short

What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. 1 Corinthians 7:29a NIV

Paul believed that earthly time was short because Christ’s second coming was imminent. Maybe according to God’s timing, which is different from ours, it was and is imminent. In any case, our eyes need to be on God, because our time on earth is short.

In childhood, the first season of life, days and years seem long. But in the second, wage-earning/householder, summer season, which our accountant was experiencing, the days seem long and the years short. Then in the third season of life—autumn, harvesttime, Vanaprastha—both days and years seem short. I imagine that perception will continue into our fourth and final season. 

Regardless of our perception of time, the brevity of human existence is a theological truth and recurrent biblical theme. As James writes in 4:14: Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

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