Eternity

Yesterday, I had an eternity moment. We were meeting our grandchildren at Heathrow. There were delays and we were starting to feel weary. We had been standing at the barrier in the arrivals hall for a couple of hours when I spotted our six year old granddaughter. In the mutual sighting of a moment, as she ran towards me and as I ducked under the barrier, I heard her ecstatic cry – “Granny!” 

People say that bits of your life are played back to you in the moment of dying and I am sure that this minor episode will be one such playback. I am sure of this, not because I am privy to what goes on in the immediate aftermath of life, but because the love of a six year old, so expressed, is transformational. You could call it transcendent. It draws us out of ourselves (which is possibly what dying feels like) and into something exquisite and full of light, the unconditional, unquestioning embrace of a loving God in which there is no darkness whatsoever.

In Jesus Christ, God the Father is always seeing us and crying out our name as he runs towards us and embraces us, even in our dark times. Such moments can come unexpectedly, or they can be sought. When a person seeks to know God and to be welcomed and forgiven, the moment has come for a kind of inward ‘turning around’ and running towards the source of love itself. It is a response, a recognition that the time has come for that person to recognise their deeply rooted need for a loving God.

 Perhaps it can be compared to the baby, still in the womb, turning around in preparation for birth, seeking out the light. The baby's present environment is an unbearable constraint, not only physically but in some measure, emotionally, even spiritually, just as our own way of life, our patterns and priorities, can suddenly feel unbearable and constraining. Perhaps the movement, or repositioning which occurs just before birth, also has to do with the self needing to begin the process of existence among other selves, a turning and reaching for love. 

The eternity moment which I experienced at Heathrow, was one of instant and mutual love between us, coming from my granddaughter and her younger brother who tumbled into my arms a second or two later. It was immediate and unconditional. It was also held in eternity, so it will never cease to exist. Such moments are to be experienced with God, in the person of Jesus, beginning now.

If you feel the need to know that you are loved and valued by God in Jesus Christ, but find it difficult to own this, or to connect with him, you can message me privately on facebook.