Thursday, February 1, 2007

God - Uncreated and Eternal

“For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy.…”
Isaiah 57:”15
“The Eternal God is your refuge…” Deut. 33:27

The concept of an uncreated, eternal God is perhaps one of the most difficult of God’s attributes to understand .
Our young children ask “Who made God?” , and even as adults we struggle with wrapping our brains around ‘forever’. We can project our memory into the past or our imagination into the future but far as our concentrated effort may take us, we always hit a brick wall at some point.

In Ecclesiastes 3:11 it says, “He hath made everything beautiful in its time, also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.”
I find the words, “he hath set the world in their heart” very interesting. Is God saying that we are limited - that we are held captive by the physical boundaries of this world ?
Perhaps we cannot grasp the idea of ‘forever’ because the ability to do so was never programmed into the parameters of our brain.

Though we have an unlimited range of intensity and hue of colour, all them are a mix of 5 primary colours. Have you ever wished there was a colour that was entirely new and different? Close your eyes and try to imagine another primary color, one that is totally unrelated to the ones we have.
It is impossible, isn’t it? We have no reference point, no comprehension of what it could look like. It is the same thing when we try to grasp eternity. We cannot do it. Because God has purposely limited our ability to do so.

But that does not mean that it is impossible to believe that God is eternal - or that eternity exists outside of our time limited physical world. Just as we can believe there could be more colors - we just can’t imagine what they would look like - so also we can believe that God is eternal .
To help us believe He has given us visual proof in His creation that reveals this attribute of Himself .

We have only to go outside and gaze up at the sky. We know it goes on and on stretching far beyond the stars – beyond our galaxy - beyond where man has seen even with the most powerful telescopes . We know there is no end to space. It goes on ‘forever’ ….we know it and believe it even if our minds spin trying to grasp the concept.
So also, we know and believe that God is eternal , and that one day those who love Him will live with Him forever !

I John 2:25, “And this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life !”

2 comments:

Yokooso said...

Yes I can not see another color, you're right!

"...Perhaps we cannot grasp the idea of ‘forever’ because the ability to do so was never programmed into the parameters of our brain."

Yes I love how you put this...we are like computers in a sense and God is our programmer...He only allows us to know so much...I love it! I love Him!!! Thank-you for promising life eternally with you Lord!

Carolanne said...

Next term, I am teaching my students about space. I like the comparion of space to eternity and think I might use that when I'm talking to them.