Time Eternal

Isaiah 46:10 NIV
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'

I guess my interest in series started in the 50's when I would go to the movies on Saturdays and see the Superman serial in between the two main shows. I can't tell you what those movies were about, but I always remembered what was happening with Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

Dianne and I like to watch TV series. Years ago we would have our favorite shows and each week see the next episode. What we like about them is the way the characters develop and the relationships form between them. Now we stream them on Netflix through our Roku box and get to go from the beginning to the end of the series one right after another without commercials.

One of most difficult concepts to grasp is how God knows the beginning and the end and everything in between. It is not because our lives, our every step is predetermined. It is because we live on two different planes of existence.

We live in a time that has a beginning and and end. It is a linear existence. We start at point A and move on to point B and so on. When we are at point D we cannot go back a revisit A, B or C. They were and will never be again except in our memories. And we cannot see into a future time to know what is coming for E and beyond. We take it one day at a time; one experience after another. Our choices while at point D determine the destination for point E.

God, on the other hand, lives in a timeless environment. There is no beginning or end. He sees into our plane of existence at any point He wishes and perhaps even at all of our life all at once. Our choices determine our next path in our life and He sees all the future points based on each choice we make. This does not make our life predestined, it makes His view timeless.

This was a difficult concept to grasp. But a couple of weeks ago we started to watch a TV series we had watched on regular TV a few years ago. We had not started the series on TV at the beginning. I think we picked it up in the middle. It took a few nights to settle in and we enjoyed watching it.

Recently we found it on Netflix and decided to watch it from the beginning. We enjoy the relationships and the character development occurring from episode to episode. After a watching a few of the series we realized we knew the future. We knew what was going to happen and could see how the choices being made would affect the outcome. Because we had seen the second half of the series we knew what was to come. We had a God like, timeless view of their lives.

"Father, help us to make choices each day to make us more like Christ. Help us decide to take the path that leads us closer to you. In Jesus name, we pray."