THE TENSE OF ETERNITY

The theory of relativity as explained by Albert Einstein presupposes the elasticity of time. The bible also acmes on this, by stating that one day, is like a thousand years unto the Lord. This brings a connotation of different realities. The reality you live in, is entirely different from the reality someone else lives in. This explains the power of friendship; when two realities come into fusion, it is not just two souls that come together but two worlds make an acquaintance. All this is made possible by the virtue that the times and tides are relative. When one is in a bliss, the other is in sorrow.  But what exactly has this construct namely time effected on reality?

During creation, a series of “it was evening and it was day” followed each other. And after six of these, God rested. Just my opinion, I seem to think that God really took time to create time itself. Every day of creation, there was “evening and day”; ever day time was created. Why would one item take all that time to be created? Well, the answer is that it wasn’t one item, they were many items. It wasn’t time alone that was being created, but times. No wonder the preacher comes along and says that there is time for everything. It is a multifaceted construct.

However, it is not the many faces of time and its elasticity that is of interest in this read. The effects of its properties are immense. Time is finite. Everything that has a beginning, has an end. This simple property of time has sent qualms throughout the strong men of the world and weak alike. Why so? Because it is a limited resource. Once you are born, the next big thing is death’s sting! Do we then wish not to be born? Not at all, there has to be a beginning just as there has to be an end.

The most denominative school of thought that gears men is the puerile motive to do their worst before time ceases. Acquire a lot of wealth, attain the highest level of education or be most famous before time catches up. There has been one thought that has always kept me awake. It is the question of the tense of eternity. How is someone supposed to live right, as though time never existed? If my tabs ended today, would I proceed into eternal life, where time does not exist or the opposite way?

One evening, a few years ago, I got sick. I had malaria but was dispensed for drugs to which I was allergic to. Few hours after consuming the drug, I was rushed to hospital, and the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with me. I was however very ill. Just at some moment in time, there was a sensation that part of me was separating from the other. Just then, I noticed what was happening. I was dying. Time was giving up on me. What hit me was the transition from this world to the next reality.

When time ceases to exist, worry goes away. Even the five senses work better. You relish every moment oblivious and not caring about what the next moment holds. In fact there isn’t a next moment. There is no tomorrow, there is no yesterday; there is only present. Colors are more beautiful with more shades than what you have ever seen. There is peace that surpasses your knowledge. Well, this I know isn’t the case for those who didn’t use time well. My experience did not last long as well. I woke up in a wheelchair, in a hospital’s hallway.
I look back to that moment with deep nostalgia. But then recently I learnt I can recreate it. I choose to live in time without thinking about time. I choose to live everyday as though it is the only day left. It is hard though, especially with work deadlines, gestation periods, termed contracts and all these anniversaries. But then the bible says we are in this world but not of this world. I am a temporary prisoner of time, but a citizen of eternity.

I know of someone who promises to be with us until the end of time. Jesus. The question is, are you with him now? Do you wake up every morning and hold His hand? He was there in the old times with Joshua, when He froze time by stopping the sun. He defied biological mini-constraints of time by granting a very old couple a son. Why then would I worry about time yet the creator of time has His own stopwatch? There is no “will be”, there is no “was”; there is just eternity. We dwell on the tense of eternity. No need for fear, no need for insecurity, no desire for sin but just the power to give your all to the owner of eternity.