Reading through the Gospels, I’ve arrived at the book of John in my amplified bible. Verse 1 reads: In the beginning (before all time) was the Word… It reminded me that before God created the world and us, there was no such thing as time! God lives outside our world even now and His context is eternity which does not run on our time. Many of us know from experience that our timing is very different from God’s. Sometimes, we don’t like it. We are seldom aware of why God doesn’t work in our time frame. Anyway, I was thinking about how it would be to live without the pressure of time on every situation.
In the Lord’s prayer, we pray “thy Kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Doesn’t this prayer ask God to bring His eternity to earth? And doesn’t that include the concept of no time? Can we really experience timeless eternity here on earth? How would that feel?
Our vocabulary is full of time references. We can be early or late or right on time. We say we have deadlines to meet. We say we go around in circles which means that we get no where and we call that a waste of time. In eternity, outside of time, you can go around in circles and no direction will be considered a negative move because eventually, you will end up where you meant to go and you won’t notice how long it took you…neither will anyone else. It’s only when we put our actions into a time context that we consider any of them a problem. Outside of time, there is no retracing of steps, going backwards or losing ground. Romans 8:28 says: “God works all things to good… “ And we might add “even our mistakes.” Yes, God sees good coming out of every situation. In eternity, I believe everything is good in God’s eyes. Romans 8:1 says: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Being in Christ is to live in the context of eternity. And in eternity, everything is good in God’s eyes. Imagine everyone always being good and right all the time and at the same time. In our world we strive for this ideal. We call it being true to ourselves, but even so, it doesn’t always lead to harmony. In eternity there is no disharmony. In our world there is often a correct sequential order. We assume that growing older leads to wisdom. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. Without time, order can be one way for you and another me, and there is no judgment on when you get to wisdom or if you get there at all.
We often wonder what we will be doing in eternity. How will be pass the time? Since there is no time there, I think we’ll just be and my guess is that we’ll be happy to just be. Our identity will not be tied up in our accomplishments, or our speed of accomplishment, or if we even accomplish! We probably won’t ask questions like “what have you accomplished today?” We’ll ask, “So, what did you find out about yourself today?” I bet we will be thrilled as we become who God made us to be when He gave us Life initially. To become ourselves will be the highest goal. To actually fit into our eternal destiny will be what we look forward to.
So, to answer the question, can we really experience timeless eternity right here on earth? I think we can. Afterall, we are aiming for eternity, aren’t we? Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has set eternity in the hearts of men.” That means that we yearn for eternity. What better way to reach eternity already prepared to enjoy it than to let the Lord teach us to live eternally right here, right now? I wish this for each of us. May today be the day that you know the Lord Jesus, be found in Him and with Him in timeless eternity. Amen.
