Children of Time

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is my favorite of all the Trek incarnations. I grew up watching the Original Series & still enjoy it, 'not crazy about the Next Generation or Voyager but really liked Enterprise, However, DS9 seemed to be a cut above the rest w/ their story arcs, depth of characters, conflicts & amazing writing; it all came together in this series.

Lately I've been pondering an episode called “Children of Time” & here's a short synopsis: while on the way back to DS9 from a mission in deep space, the crew of the Defiant investigate an anomalous field surrounding a planet. They go through the field only to find the planet populated by their descendants, 'caused by them trying to break back through the field in 2 days only to be thrown back in time 200 years & crash land.

The current crew works w/ their descendants to devise a way that the ship can split in two, one crash landing in the past thus preserving the  history of the planet & the other breaking free to return our current crew home. 

It was a great story, full of scenarios, conflicted emotions & a great sense of both uncertainty & urgency; uncertainty of the population as to whether they would even exist in 2 days & urgency of the crew to get back to their families.

On the day before the crew was to attempt their escape from the planet, they took part in a yearly Spring planting ritual, where the entire population came together & planted the seeds for the coming harvest. In light of the circumstances, many were questioning "why are we doing this if we may not even be here tomorrow?".

It reminds me of the hour we live in, where some have a futility-mindset:

• why plan for the future when we may not have one?
• why bother planting seeds for a harvest we may never see?
• why save money for retirement when Jesus could return any second?
• what's the point of having any long-term plans?

I'm not going to spoil the episode for you but I will say this: on the last day everyone worked together, until well into the night & braced themselves for whatever outcome time dealt them.

God walks in eternity. Those in Christ are His Children & His Children have a different perspective on time. This planet is not our home nor our destination, it's temporary but while we're here, there's things to done... seeds to be planted... crops to be harvested... a life to be enjoyed & lived... people to be taught & loved... 

For no one knows what tomorrow will bring or even if there is a tomorrow for some.