Excerpts From and Comments On “Eternity in Our Hearts”[1]

What if time astonishes us because we are meant to one day live outside it?

Like travelers on a road, humans can only experience time moment by moment. But God sees the whole road, including the surrounding territory, because He made it. ….

Meanwhile, we live it – “so little reconciled to time,” wrote C. S. Lewis, “that we are ever astonished by it. ‘How he’s grown!’ we exclaim. ‘How time flies!’ as though the universal form of our experience were again and again a novelty. It’s as strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised at the very wetness of water. And that would be strange indeed: unless of course the fish were destined to become, one day, a land animal.”[2]

Perhaps we can understand time (and space) as the canvas on which God paints creation. And if that’s the case, we will someday, in heaven, experience it from the outside. Suppose eternity will be the opportunity to examine the whole cloth of time as God has woven each of us into it; marveling at the intricate patterns and mysterious providences and startling connections. Finding out what God has done from beginning to end will be a glory to look forward to, even better than Christmas.

Then we will have all eternity to marvel at the “intricate patterns and mysterious providences and startling connections” that are invisible or opaque to us now.  The disappointments and frustrations and doubts and questions that plague us will become opportunities for ever increasingly glorious recognition of God’s perpetually perfect plan.

[1] Janie B. Cheaney, “Eternity in our Hearts,” World Magazine, September 23, 2023;
https://wng.org/articles/eternity-in-our-hearts-1693975410  .

[2] C. S. Lewis, “Second Meanings in the Psalms” in Reflections on the Psalms (London: Collins Fontana Books, 1969), 115.
C. S. Lewis, “Second Meanings in the Psalms” in Reflections on the Psalms (London: HarperCollins e-books, 2017), Kindle Edition, location 1690; page 161.