To me, the hardest concept to grasp concerning an eternal, all-knowing and all-powerful God is that He is not bound by our concepts of time. As humans, we see time in three phases. What happened yesterday is past, what is happening today is present, and what will happen tomorrow is future. But with God, every time is now. At this moment, He is at the dawn of creation, at the end of the world, and right here with us. He is already at the end of whatever trial we are facing. He already knows how it comes out. He is currently at the time of the hurt you suffered decades ago, and He is with you right now, standing with you in your confusion, to offer His grace, which is the only thing we need to get through our uncertanties.
God is never surprised by our circumstances. He is not shocked when something or someone hurts me. He is there when it happens, and He is there already when it is all sorted out for eternity. In light of eternity, and in light of God's unmeasurable knowledge, the amazing thing is not that He can see us through our struggles. The amazing thing is that a God who is that great and powerful wants to see us through our struggles.
2 comments:
Randy,
The relation of God to time is something I've been giving some considerable thought to, though I can't yet express my thoughts clearly. So forgive me if they seem disjointed and incomplete.
I think we have to be careful not to think of God as unrelated to time, as merely timeless, though we also must be careful not to think God is conditioned or controlled by time.
First, if we think of God as simply beyond time, then we must also think of God as beyond space. Which leaves us thinking and feeling as Deists, who have no sense of God's loving presence in our world. God is not "out there" somewhere. God is here.
Second, what are we to make of the ongoing incarnation of Jesus if we are going to hold to a view of God as timeless? What would it mean to be human without our bodies? And how could we have our bodies without a world to inhabit? And how could we have a world to inhabit without time? Humans are rational, meaning they think through, they process, their thoughts. This requires the passage of time. So sheer timelessness would mean the end of humanness, at least in any recognizable sense.
I am thinking it would be better to think of God as timely, as one who has opened Himself to time/space and sanctions it for our good. And I believe in the End (telos), God will finally redeem and perfect time, so that it will no longer mean the erosion of the Present, but will nonetheless in some sense involve a past, present, and future.
I don't think this alters the basic point you're making. God is in our future, but not be reason of de-meaning our present or by making Him distant. Perhaps it's better to say God is our future? And that that, and not merely God's foreknowledge, is the basis of our hope?
you have NO idea how much I needed to read this today:-) Thanks!!
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