Friday, April 9, 2004
Friday, April 9, 2004
No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's
heart, who has made him known.
(John 1.18
NRSV)
How big is this universe? February 23, 1987. An astronomer observed with his naked eye the explosion of a distant supernova--a blast so powerful that it released as much energy in one second as our sun will release in ten billion years. The truly startling fact is that this supernova exploded 170,000 years ago. It took that long for the light generated by that faraway event, traveling almost 6 trillion miles a year, to reach us.
Can you imagine a God for whom time does not even exist? We talk about "forever." People say, "Forever is a long time." That's not it at all. Where God is, there is no time. God created time just as He created space. There is no tomorrow or yesterday in heaven. It is always now! Can you get your mind around that? Eternity is timeless.
In Los Angeles there is a fossil museum beside the La Brea tar pits. At the entrance of the museum is a painting of a ribbon, eighty-five feet long, representing five billion years of the earth's history. One inch equals five million years. Do you know how much space on that ribbon belongs to the history of the human race, from the cave men to the astronauts? Less than one-half inch! As one author asks, "What was God doing the other 84 feet 11.5 inches?"
It is good to remember when we wonder why God doesn't keep our timetable that time is nothing to God. Time is a convenience by which we measure things, not God. You see, many of us have a God who is too small. We want to create God in our image, but He is the Divine Other. He is beyond our imagining. Yet knows the number of hairs on our head. Our God is personal. Our God loves each and everyone of us personally.
Lord Jesus, thank you for making my relationship with God personal. Amen.
