| Bishop's CornerWintertime in Florida
By Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
 Last year was
the first time I spent a winter in Florida. Since it was unusually warm,
my first winter here seemed strange. The angle of light and the
shortness of the days were proof that it was winter, but the warmth of
the air tricked my body into suspecting it must be some other time of
year.
This year I am beginning to apprehend the
particular beauty of a subtropical winter. The weather has been
different this winter. It is much cooler this year than it was last
year. Because of the cooler temperatures, my body is more aware that
it is winter. Yet, it also looks like autumn. The freezes have turned
the color of the leaves so that the maples of Florida in January look
like maples elsewhere in October. Moreover, there is still much warm
weather so that many days are spring-like. Here is the peculiar charm
of January in Florida: all at once we experience autumn, winter and
spring! Someone who is used to his seasons existing separately at
different times is amazed by this convergence of the seasons in
January. The convergence alters our perception of time.
We think of time as a kind of extension in which
there is a distinction between past, present and future. Of course,
this sense of the passing of time is only a perception of human
creatures. In the mind of God, past, present and future are known in
their wholeness because God is eternal. Thomas C. Oden said: “It is
as if God were on a mountain watching a river. Humans see the flow of
this river only from a particular point on the bank, but God, as if
from high above, sees the river in its whole extent, at every point,
simultaneously.”
The experience of having autumn, winter and
spring all at once during January in the subtropics reminds me of the
mystery of the eternity of God. God creates time. God participates in
the time God creates. Yet all time is known immediately in the mind of
God because God is eternal. The Florida winter makes me think on these
things and to exclaim with St. Augustine, at the conclusion of his
meditation on time in his “Confessions (Book XI),” “If there
were a mind gifted with such vast knowledge and foreknowledge as to
know all the past and all the future…, that mind is wonderful beyond
belief, stupendous, and awe inspiring.”
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