Well, it's a new year again- 2005. The change reminds me that time is one of those mysteries about which human beings have been and will continue to be puzzled.

In one sense, there is no such thing as time - it is an artificial designation. The Greeks long ago defined time in this manner as "the by-product of motion" - the motion of heavenly bodies. Time for them, and for us, is simply a way of noting the full or partial rotation and revolution of the earth, the moon, the sun, and stars - even the galaxies. When a heavenly body makes a full rotation or revolution, we call that a day or a year. We then turn those into larger denotations, such as a week or a decade or a century these are especially artificial.

Our ancestors had the same recognition as the Greeks, but saw the motion of the planets and stars as having the very purpose of time. Genesis 1 says of them, "and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years." Time is not an accident, there because of the motion. The motion is put there by God's intent to create time and an order for the universe.

And of course, in some ways our ancestors were even more sensitive to that movement than are we. Our ancestors measured a month by the moon's waxing and waning, thus the word month is derived from the word moon. (Our months are measured totally independent of the moon's motion.)

What is important about our ancestors' concept of time is that they thought of it as part of creation - time is built into the universe - not there coincidentally but intentionally. It is part of God's plan for the universe.

I believe this is because the supreme value in Judaism, after God, is human life. And just as time is there so we can measure life, so should we measure our time, our life. But not just according to the length of days or weeks or years, We should measure it in human qualities like honor, integrity, love, honesty, generosity, compassion.

Entering a new year should cause us to look at more than the calendar. It should cause us to look at ourselves, noting not just the changing date on the wall but the possibility of improving the values in our hearts.

Like many things in life, we cannot control the motion of the heavens, but we can control the motion of our lives, determining what we will turn toward and what we will turn away from.

Hopefully the motion of our lives over which we have no control will be favorable. And equally important, the motion of our lives over which we do have control will be toward higher living.