As the holidays rushed past, it seemed like one week turned into another in a matter of hours instead of days. With bad weather and cold temperatures keeping us inside for several days, one day blurred into the next. I have literally lost track of what day it is on more than one occasion.

As I wrote myself a note on my calendar for a doctor’s appointment, I realized how important calendars are in our lives. They keep us on track, keep us on time, and help us keep up with the days, months and seasons.

It is no wonder that one of man’s earliest and most important inventions was the calendar. According to Wikipedia, archeologists had discovered methods of time keeping all the way back to prehistoric time. The Sumerian calendar is believed to be the earliest official calendar. The first formal calendar discovered comes from the Bronze age, tracking the day, solar year and lunar cycles.

The Gregorian calendar is the current internationally accepted calendar which keeps accurate account of days, weeks, lunar cycles, months and years. This is the calendar formed and accepted in 1528 which allows for a recalibration every fourth year with an extra day in February, known as a Leap Year.

With calendars on every hand, it is hard to imagine the passing of each year without our regulated markings that separate and label time. One of the first things school children learn are the days of the weeks, the months of the year and the names of the seasons.

We have calendars that pop up on our telephones, computers, iPads, and any other digital apparatus we may use. Many watches not only tell time, but also the calendar date. We hang calendars on the wall, stick them on the refrigerator and keep copies on our desk. If we are going to function in the real world with other people, we must pay close attention to the days and the hours so that all are on the same page.

It is almost impossible to imagine our world without calendars. We need them to file reports on time, pay taxes, avoid late charges on bills, keep doctor’s appointments, and get to work on time. Our world runs on a calendar cycle.

Recently, I’ve heard many lectures and sermons about the days that we are living in and the sands in the hour glass of time that will mark the end of life as we know it. Reasons given are human pollution, overpopulation, global warming, epidemics, natural disasters, space objects hitting earth and a long list goes on.

In religious circles, including, but not limited to Christianity, people of many faiths believe we are approaching a time when there will be a supernatural intervention in the affairs of man. Many eastern and middle eastern religions believe that the calendar of mankind as we know it is soon coming to a close. The Mayan calendar, which was formulated in 500 B.C.E,. also points to some dramatic event on our threshold.

Many Christians believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Although the when and how of His return is debated, there are none who believe it will not happen. The Bible speaks of many signs that should warn us of the end of days and that the return of Christ is near.

The writer of the letter to Timothy 2,000 years ago warned, “… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof …”

To believe this speaks of our current days is not a hard stretch of the imagination. It is also said that no man knows the day or the hour that this will happen. Calendars won’t be able to warn us. Clock alarms won’t sound their bells.

Calendars, as long as men endure, will mark the events of humankind on their historical timeline.

Reach longtime Enterprise columnist Judith Victoria Hensley at judith99@bellsouth.net or on Facebook. Check out her blog: One Step Beyond the Door.