In our understanding of time, we talk about schedules and deadlines.
So we will talk about timing and the latest time or date by which something should be completed.
In the 1st reading, when Jonah went into the city of Nineveh, the core of the message that he had for the Ninevites was that in 40 days’ time, Nineveh would be destroyed.
Jonah could only see that the Ninevites had only 40 days to live, after which destruction would follow, and he probably won’t be around to see that.
But what Jonah didn’t see and what he was not prepared to see was the time taken by the Ninevites to believe in God and to repent.
And he was probably amazed that God saw all their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour, and God relented – He did not inflict on them the disaster which He had threatened.
So as much as we plan our lives with schedules and deadlines, God is telling us that everything happens in His time.
It can be difficult to understand things in God’s time, just as it can be difficult to understand His thoughts and His ways.
But God will give us the signs and we only need to be sensitive to those signs that are given by God.
The sign for Jonah was the immediate repentance of the Ninevites, and it showed him who God is.
God will also have a sign for each of us, and with that sign, we will come to know who God is and like Jonah, we too will know who God is and what His ways are.