Forever is a long time. It’s such a strange concept. So foreign to our finite selves regardless of the fact that we have an infinite soul within, providing us with life.
When I was little, I used to sit and just think about forever, about what eternity will be like. How we’ll be living in heaven for eternity, infinity, FOREVER. I’d get such a strange feeling, trying to my wrap my little mind around such an ungraspable concept.
I suppose not much has changed. I still get the nearly eery feeling that my life, my soul, my existence is eternal. Often I have to preoccupy my slightly freaked self with something else just because it’s so mind-blowing. And very much out of my control.
Last week, we studied the book of Hebrews. And while the book is just saturated with so many verses, crucial points, and beautifully blunt statements, one verse seemed to jump out at me: “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8).
That seemingly simple sentence can explode your mind if you let it. It was like I was six years old again, overwhelmed with the greatness of eternal life, with the concept of existing outside of time.
But at the same time I found this verse to be quite comforting. In my twenty-two years of life here on earth, I have changed a drastic amount. Changes have changed me. Things outside of my control have happened. I have allowed myself to be swayed by others, by temptation, by the world.
And through it all, Christ has remained the same. He is the same Almighty as when I was six years old thinking about him. And when I meet him face to face, he will be the same. Faithful, constant, just, good, righteous, beautiful, perfect. Timeless.
So despite my feelings of, well, fear of eternity, I am confident that the Savior I knew at age six to the Lord I will spend forever with is the same. No longer will earthly struggles, circumstances, and random changes get in the way. No longer will I doubt if God really cares or is in control because of situations I seem trapped in or when fear of the unknown has a deadly grip on me. No longer will I be bound by time, limited by my mortal being.
Forever is freedom and eternal contentment. The God who is the same yesterday, today and forever is quite a magnificent Being. And I can’t wait to spend all of forever getting to know him.
