Eternal

The word for the day is "olam."  It is the Hebrew word we would translate as eternal.  It also means endless.  For our purposes and for Biblical clarity, it means endless, both forward and backward in time.

Our concept of this word has been confined (something you can't really do with eternity) to a more childlike view.  I remember my daughter asking about how long something would take.  While I don't remember the exact context, I do remember her response.  "That will take forever (pronounced foe-evah)!"  I laughed when she said it, but I wonder if God also laughs when we try to fathom this concept.

Isaiah 40:28 says, "Have you never heard?  Have you never understood?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth.  He never grows weak or weary.  No one can measure the depths of His understanding!"  This Scriptural context is professed in the Nicene and the Apostle's Creed.  God is "olam" ... everlasting ... eternal ... always ... with no beginning and with no end.

Michael Card writes, with reverence and wonder, the words ... "To all who've been of the Spirit, and share incarnation with Him, who belong to eternity stranded in time."  What a statement about God and about us!  And what an expression of the true reward!

Eternity is not about a mansion over the hilltop (something we will get/possess).  Eternity is not about a crown (a reward for good deeds) ... in The Revelation these are cast down at the feet of a holy God.  Eternity is about:

1. God sharing the precious life, death, and resurrection of Christ with people whose only claim to this gift is our relationship with Jesus.

2. God offering us the blessing of forever worship of "the Lamb upon the throne" (Revelation 5:13).

3. God inviting us into His eternal kingdom and eternal place so we can enjoy the presence of God in the holiness and beauty of His Kingdom, finally come down to earth (Revelation 21:2).

The creeds are filled with God's invitation to this place we cannot understand, but, in trusting God, can strive for, long for, and dream for.  Maranatha ... Our Lord, come!