In the Beginning

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1 goes on to describe what God physically spoke into existence, but God’s creation is not limited to the physical realm. After all, on the first day he said, “Let there be light,” and we are then told that this was the first day. It was the first day because before that day there were no days. To be clear, the reason there were no days before that day was not because of the light. It was because time did not exist before God created it.

God created time. 

A God who creates time is not subject to time, he is not governed by time, he is not inside time. How could a God who created dimensional physics be subject to dimensional physics? He couldn’t. The Bible itself corroborates this, telling us in 2 Peter 3:8 that, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 

God is outside of time.

It may be difficult to imagine such a state as “outside of time” because for those of us in time, we experience all things in sequence. That is to say that one thing happens, and then something else happens, and then something else happens. It just keeps going on like this. The absence of time at least implies, and probably demands an existence without sequence. In other words, everything happens all at once, but at once is also forever, because there is no “at once,” since “at once” is essentially another way to measure time. 

Here’s another way to think about this. We, human beings, occupy the 3rd and 4th dimensions. It is difficult to imagine beings occupying dimensions beyond our outside of those dimensions, although it’s relatively easy to imagine beings in a dimension below ours. So consider the 2nd dimension. Imagine flat beings all interacting in 2 dimensional space. Everything they know is flat. They cannot see beyond this flat realm they are in. They can’t really conceive of it. And what would happen if they interacted with a 3 dimensional object? Imagine a sphere being pushed through the plane of 2 dimensional space. At first it would just look like a tiny point. As the sphere moved through the plane the point would widen into a circle, which would continue to widen until the very middle of the sphere intersected with the plane. As the sphere continued to move, the circle would then shrink until it was just a point again, and finally it would disappear. 

If you asked the 2 dimensional beings what a circle was, they would describe a dot that widens into a circle, then shrinks back to a dot and disappears again. They wouldn’t be wrong per se… but their comprehension and description of a sphere would clearly be limited. 

So our knowledge of God is limited, including in the area of time and space. 

God did create time, but he did not simply leave us to measure it arbitrarily. It is true that humans have devised a number of different systems for tracking time, but all of these, whether they be calendars, clocks, sun-dials, or hour-glasses, essentially measure subsets of time based on the basic building blocks that God has already put into place.

Allow me to digress for just a moment. 

In the quest to track time more and more perfectly, humans have not only devised extremely accurate, precise measurements and means of measurement. They have also created stunningly gorgeous, reliable timepieces in the form of mechanical watches that give wearers the ability to track that time seamlessly and in style. Many of these watches will survive for decades, even 100 years or more, if maintained and serviced properly. One of the more complex watch movements is known as the perpetual calendar movement, which not only tells the time, but also the day of the week, day of the month, month, and even the moon phase. These watches only need to be adjusted once every four years for leap years. The most advanced perpetual calendars even take into account the leap year, and could theoretically go on ticking for centuries without adjustment if it weren’t for the occasional service that would be required for it to keep running. 

All of this to say, a complex, consistent time-keeping system like a perpetual calendar movement requires an astounding level of intentionality, exacting precision, and flawless execution to reliably produce. Such a masterpiece could not come about by accident in a trillion, trillion years. 

Now consider with me the earth, the moon, the sun, the stars, and our Solar System. 

Genesis 1 tells us that God made all of these things. The Solar System exists on a plane. The earth rotates at a consistent speed, and revolves around the sun at a consistent speed. The moon revolves around the earth at a consistent speed. Planets, stars, and other heavenly bodies move along at their own paces consistently and predictably. Days, months, and years are precisely determined by these movements. Even the angle of the earth’s tilt serves to neatly divide each year into four seasons. We can predict total solar eclipses of the sun out to 600 million years. 

And this entire system has been running perfectly for thousands of years.

No one needs to reset it or maintain it. It will continue to run smoothly without any service issues for as long as God has already ordained. 

God’s clock is breathtakingly beautiful, and elegant in its simplicity. 

That’s the good news. The bad news is that no watchmaker can come close to matching God’s timepiece. Eventually your watch will stop working, no matter how well it is maintained and serviced. No matter how much you spend on your watch, it will not hold perfect accuracy for thousands of years. And whether it’s stainless steel, titanium, or gold, it still won’t hold a candle to a harvest moon or an ocean sunset. 

Wasson Watch Co. is no exception. We cannot make a watch that is better than what God has made. But we do pledge to do the very best we can with what God has given us. You see, on the sixth day God created man - male and female he created them in his own image. God, the ultimate and original creator, impaired his own creative attributes upon mankind, and we are honored to use that creativity to make excellent timepieces for his glory and for the good of others.