#21 Time, "Before a word is on my lips you know it completely, O Lord." [Psalm 139:4]

I want to talk about something that I do not think many contemplate - time.  What is time?  Our language is built around the subject matter [we have past, present, and future tenses], we are absolutely governed by it [we talk of our past, present, and future] and we live within it all our lives.  Yet, I do not think that I have ever encountered a good description of what time is.  We cannot define it.  When you look the word, "time" up in the dictionary you usually only get a definition of what time does - not what time is.  You will read something along the lines of, "it is the succession of seconds, minutes, days, and years..."  Which of course only tells us how we measure time - it tells us nothing of what time is. 

But we do know that time is real.  We cannot visit yesterday.  We cannot jump to tomorrow.  Time is real.  And if it is a real thing, it is a created thing.  And if it is a created thing, then God created it.  And if God created it, He is above it. 

What I am getting at is something I do not think many Christians recognize.  We talk about God being present everywhere - and we are right.  He is present in all places at all times.  Yet, due to our dependence on this time/space universe we think about God, "seeing" into the future or, "looking back" into the past.  This is inadequate. 

When God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush He told Moses the name that He should be called, "I AM."  This is because with God there is no such thing as a future or past - God is eternally present. 

For example, if time is a line ----------------------------------------------------------------------------like this - and every dash is a moment in time, then if you are reading this you represent God.  He sees the line all at once.  He does not live, "in the line" like you and I do. 

The implication of such a thing is that when God said, "let there be light" He was simultaneously experiencing the return of Christ and the marriage supper of the Lamb in glory.  He is, right now, [so to speak] experiencing you in heaven [if you believe].  God does not need a fast-forward or rewind button.  It is not simply that God, "knows" the future - He is in the future, "right now."  So when we read a prophecy it is not simply because God sees what is going to happen - He is experiencing that future now. 

This brings comfort to me.  For when the Scripture says, "He who began a good work will complete it unto the day of Christ" I know that God is already experiencing me in glory.  Thank you Lord!  Amen.