Interesting Clocks and Lives Lived Under Their Gaze

   The courthouses in some Georgia county seats are sometimes hard to find. The larger the town or city, the more the site of official county business tends to be obscured by larger buildings, but in the smaller towns, the more it stands out. In fact, as we pull into some places, the first thing we look for is the clock tower of the courthouse because it stands above all its surroundings. Like this one in Thomaston, in Upson Conty:

   Sometimes the clocks are running and sometimes not. Sometimes they are correct and sometimes not, and, if there are four faces of the clock, facing in four different directions, sometimes they do not all tell the same time. Sometimes they are only the silent sentinels of the town, and sometimes they chime the hour. Sometimes the chimes are newer and electronic, and sometimes the original bell is still up there and working in the tower.

   Except for restoration and history buffs, does anyone care about the clocks that stand looking out over the town square? At a time when almost everyone carries their time around with them in their pockets or on their wrists, what do these symbols of a bygone era mean, like this one from Sandersville in Washington County?

   As I think about them in this day and time, my mind wants to go back to when they were erected and why the planners chose these timepieces to adorn their, at the time, new buildings. The modern courthouses that tend to replace these outmoded structures in the cities and larger towns, do not have these features.

   These clocks were not just ornamental, they had a function that was needed in these towns a hundred years or so ago. Folks who lived out in the country worked by the time of the sun, but those in the towns had schedules to meet and business to conduct. Courts were held and meetings were convened. The clocks could get a person to the right place at the right time, and they could also be an excuse for someone who was late. A man could point to an incorrect clock face and claim that was the one that he was going by.

   How interesting to know what these old essentials of the past could tell us about the peoples that lived lives in their shadows.

   How about God's timepiece? What does it show about my lifespan or the nation's? No matter if ours is an atomic clock, correct to the nano second, or the the clock in Washington County that was about 4 hours slow, if it was running at all, God's time continues on.

   If I depend on that county courthouse clock I can be in big trouble, even on my new clock that says I have lots of time, so, maybe the best thing to do is affirm that God is in control of my life and make my time count for Him.

   That sun will set anyway, on God's time, no matter what that clock in the tower says.

   Time marches on.