Image via WikipediaYesterday I was discussing the various aspects of eternity with a group of students I meet with regularly. We talked for a good long while and one of the things we lingered on for a bit is the notion of "forever" in relation to us and eternity.
If I'm being completely transparent here I have to admit that eternity in terms of forever-forward is a hard thing for me to comprehend, or even contemplate for that matter. The idea of endlessness or everlastingness as concerns our existence is just incredibly difficult to absorb. That is not to say that I don't believe in the eternal here-after. Rather, it is my acknowledgement that when dealing with this particular line of thought my intellectual reasoning is simply not up to the task. It is purely a faith issue for me.
My pea-brain understands that biologically there is an end to how long it can exist. My thirty-one year old body bares witness with this in that I can't quite do some things as well or as quickly as I used to. Forever, rings to me as something akin to infinite, at least in terms of time, and what are we as mortal human beings if not finite. In the seas of time and foreverness we exist as but a vapor and a mist caught up in this mortal coil, and yet we are offered eternity.
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” - John 4:13,14
In times when I begin to seriously consider the nature of forever and eternity my humanity has great difficulty. Rarely is there a greater opportunity for my faith step up.
