Time and Eternity 

God on Monday
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But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day (2 Peter 3:8). 

Reflection

During childhood, time moves slowly. Waiting our turn feels impossible. On car trips, we impatiently ask our parents, ’Are we there yet?’ During most of December, it feels like forever until Christmas.

In adulthood, time appears to move much faster. We start wondering where the time is going and wish we had some of it back.

Scripture teaches us that God is the eternal creator of time who is the same ’yesterday, today, and forever’ (Heb 13:8). God has, quite literally, all the time in the world. But in Jesus God freely submits to the constraints of time, for the sake of our redemption. 

Jesus will have experienced the ‘slowness’ of time in infancy, and its ‘acceleration’ in adulthood. In the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion, he experienced the feeling that his time was rapidly running out. Then, in the agony of the cross, he experienced time ‘ending’ with his final breath. Yet with the resurrection three days later, he turned time on its head.

As a result, we who are in Christ can say with confidence that we too have all the time in the world. Death may be the end of our earthly foretaste of heavenly joy. But it is also the beginning of our full experience of that joy.

For many of us, time ‘flies’ when we are working. We rarely feel we have sufficient time to complete all we strive to achieve. For those of us without work, or with tedious work, time can appear to drag. But whether we perceive time as moving slowly or quickly, we can take pleasure in the fact that, through our faith, we have already begun to experience an eternity in which we enjoy God forever.

Response

Reflect on what it means that, as believers, we are given the gift of eternity. How does this influence how you use your time today, and this week? How does it put your tasks and troubles in perspective?

Prayer

Lord God, thank you that you did not leave us alone in time. You took on all the restrictions of time, including mortality and death. Thank you that, in doing so, you opened the way for us to experience eternity in the present, and more fully in the future. While we are here on earth, grant us an eternal perspective in every area of our lives. Amen.

This Week's Author

God on Monday is produced in partnership with the Church of England. The reflections are based on the scriptural readings designated for the next Sunday in the Church's lectionary. You can sign up to Faith in Business here to receive each God on Monday instalment.   

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