God, Mankind and Time

Picture in your mind a four foot long piece of string suspended horizontally in the air in the middle of an open gymnasium. One end of the string symbolizes the beginning of recorded time. The other end symbolizes the end of recorded time or life as it is known by humans dwelling upon the earth. There is a definite order and direction on the string with the first humans and events occurring on the Eastern end of the string and the last humans and events occurring on the Western end. Every human who has ever lived or who will ever live on Earth is on the string at the same time, looking like almost invisible microbes to us if we were able to look at the whole string. While we are on the string we can read about some of what occurred on the string that lies behind us, things that have occurred to people on the string that existed before we did. We cannot see backward, and we cannot see forward on the string. We can read about what happened before, but we have zero certainty of what will happen even one millionth of a second in the future ahead of us on the string. Without help from someone who can know the future our whole world is made up of the things we can understand from the past because in reality there is virtually no present. The instant you experience a moment in what we would call the present, it passes by and is almost simultaneously the past.
Conversely, God can move freely around he gymnasium and in fact can go outside the gym if He so chooses. His eyesight is so good He can see everything going on along the string and He can see all of it with clarity at the same point in time. He sees and knows all of the future as clearly as He sees and knows all of the past and present. He can see not only the events going on, but can see into the minds and hearts of each person on the string at the same time. He sees what happens to each person as they die. He sees when each person will die as well as when they will be born. He is not bound by time at all since all of time as we know it, exists on the string that He can fully see simultaneously. If He wanted to express the difference between His view of time and ours He might try to put it in human terms that while not completely accurate (since He transcends time) might at least give us some idea of the vastness of difference between us and Him. He might say it this way, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.” 2Peter 3:8 Therefore:

GOD Man
1 day= 1,000 years
1 day= 365,000 days
24 hours= 210,240,000 hours
1440 minutes= 12,614,400,000 minutes
So 10 years on earth to mankind is the same as 14.4 minutes to God. Since God is timeless, of course, this is still an inaccurate measure, but somehow because I believe He wanted to give us some understanding of His timelessness He chose to express it this way. On the one hand therefore, if we believe that the earth has been in existence for 10,000 years, that is still only 10 days to the Lord. If however, we believe the earth is 200 million years old that is still only 200 days for the Lord, less than one year by Earth time.
In the end a life time of 70 years for man is about an hour and a half for God. There are so many ways to break this down, some intellectually interesting and some personally interesting. Here is the way God impressed on me the value of this concept. My father passed away in January of 1990 after a brief illness. My mother who had been married to him for over 50 years grieved a great deal, missing her best friend. During the succeeding days following Dad’s death she developed a neuropathy in her legs and feet that would often either wake her up in the middle of the night or keep her from going to sleep from the intense pain. She records in her quiet time journal that one morning following a pain filled sleepless night, she was pouring her heart out to God. Trying to allow Him to take the burden she felt of the pain in her feet and legs and the hurt in her heart over the loss of her best friend. She said during this time of intense prayer she was confident she heard an audible voice say, “Dorothy, I’ll meet you at 2:00”. She was startled an almost instinctively said, “What did you say?” The “voice” repeated, “Dorothy, I’ll meet you at 2:00.” Being a very sober minded woman, she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what this voice that she felt in her soul was the Lord was telling her. She speculated that perhaps He was going to heal her neuropathy at 2-maybe in the morning and maybe in the afternoon. She wrote it down, told only my younger sister and decided He would have His way in His own time. Over the next 13 years, she spent many nights, walking the floor trying to get relief from her pain and praying for her kids and friends. While we agonized for her she was as usual making lemonade from what we thought were lemons. In the fall of 2003 she became very ill. After several pain and prayer filled days, and for her family and nurses a remarkable story that I’ll save for another time, she left her earthly shell and joined her Heavenly Father. As the whole family of 18 stood around her bed held captive by those few moments of transition and translation to the other side, we spoke out loud of the legacy she had left us of love for each other and the Lord. Trying all the way to the end to remind her that she had run the race well and we were the beneficiaries of that. When the monitors flat lined, her doctor came in to physically check her pulse and be sure that she had passed. Then he looked at the clock and said, “I’m putting her time of death as 2:00 p.m.” My sister gasped and related the story that Mom had shared with her over 13 years earlier. God had kept His promise to her. She was right in thinking He might heal her at 2. She just didn’t know how much of a healing it would be. For the Lord, those 13 years were less than 20 minutes. It was if for Him He was saying to her, “I’ll see you in just a few minutes, Dorothy.”
The best part about this story and this understanding of His transcendence and omnipresence is not that Mom was joined to Him in under 20 minutes of heavenly time. It’s also not that He was able to predict the time when she would pass, to the very hour. The profound beauty of all of this discussion is that He is Sovereign over every minute of this time. He declares what will come to pass and makes it so. He is not a fortune teller with the cheat sheet of seeing what man who is sovereign over his own choices will do. He is Sovereign over everything. “Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass unless the Lord has commanded it?” Lam. 3:37 “Even from eternity, I am He; and there is none who can deliver out of my hand; I act and who can reverse it?” Is. 43:13
What incredible comfort it gives to know that He is in charge of every moment. Our blessings and our pain, which He views, apparently as almost interchangeable concepts are both in His hands. He will accomplish His good pleasure.


(Handout)
The Timelessness of God

“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.” 2Peter 3:8


Therefore:

GOD Man
1 day= 1,000 years
1 day= 365,000 days
24 hours= 210,240,000 hours
1440 minutes= 12,614,400,000 minutes

So 10 years on earth to mankind is the same as 14.4 minutes to God. Since God is timeless, of course, this is still an inaccurate measure, but somehow because I believe He wanted to give us some understanding of His timelessness He chose to express it this way. On the one hand therefore, if we believe that the earth has been in existence for 10,000 years, the time that has passed is still only 10 days to the Lord. If however, we believe the earth is 200 million years old, that is still only 200 days for the Lord, less than one year by Earth time.
In the end a life time of 70 years for man is about an hour and a half for God.

“Behold, Thou hast made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Thy sight, surely every man at his best is a mere breath.” Ps. 39:5

While He has given us a desire to utilize the time we do have in the best possible way, as His children we can do it in a way that is not focused on ourselves and in a way not filled with anxiousness or frustration. Our knowledge of His timelessness should give us perspective to work hard, because it is the norm for His children, and to enjoy the hard work as we attempt to make it the best gift of praise to Him that we can give during our brief sojourn on earth.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom.” Ps. 90:12
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6, 7