Thursday, October 13, 2011

What is God like? #5 - Mysterious and Eternal






God is Mysterious 

    Did you ever spend time as a kid just looking at an ant hill, just observing all of the business and activity going on? There you were, the gigantic creature from above, looking down upon the tiny creatures of Antville. I would say that at that time you were beginning your first forays into understanding the difference between you and God. But the true analogy would be more like looking down on little amoebas and single-celled critters on a microscope. As we begin to peer into the nature of God, we are the ones in the microscope's slide, looking backwards through the lens, attempting to see into things so far beyond us as to be virtually magical and mysterious. Staring into the eye of God, we see in the very apple of His eye our very own reflection, dimly and without much clarity. But as we continue to squint into the bright luminescence that is the divine Light, we grow smaller and He, amazingly, grows larger in our imaginations.

God is Eternal

    "The One who is, and who was..." This and many other like phrases are all throughout the Biblical narrative. Like a spring weed that just keeps coming back every year, the nagging thought comes through again and again. You may have the picture  in your mind of strange and awesome angelic beings hovering about the throne room of God and continually shouting and singing, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!(Rev.4:8)" This quality of eternality is something that we time-bound mortals stretch our brains to grasp only slightly. Because as I write this in time and you read it in time, and it is transmitted into it's various forms over time, to God it is one big Right Now. Right now God is speaking the creation into being, and the Holy Spirit is hovering over the waters and bringing in order out of chaos, and right now God is stepping into time as a baby, and right now God is watching His Son pay the penalty for the transgressions of His children, who are right now living and dying and loving and praying and worshipping and overcoming to the end. Right Now. This would be the first glimpse of what eternality is to God. Twenty years ago you prayed for a mate, and a future career, and a good retirement, and as you mouthed the words, God had them laid out from end to beginning, and not at all the way you imagined them, but better.
    All of the godhead is eternal. The Father is eternal, having spoken forth the word of power that created the universe, and watched the force of history march on until the day He sends His Son to rule and reign in His Kingdom without end. The Spirit hovers over the creation and goes forth bidden by the Son and the Father to lead and guide the people of God. And Jesus as well was "in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." And it was He himself who said, " before Abraham was, I AM." The Father is, the Spirit is and the Son is, "the same yesterday, today and forever(Heb. 13:8). "
    Time is a tricky constraint upon us. It unfolds in a straight line toward a definite end. It seems to be a direct line from point A to point B. And yet, God is apparently acting within and without, or outside, of time. The best word I have heard to describe this is "multidimensional," meaning that God is able to traverse time and space as easily as we walk from one end of the room to another. Does this "bake your noodle?" But wait, there's more...

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