Love in Time

"And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens... let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years...' " (Ge 1:14).

You may not have considered this, but God made you bound to a moment in time. Much like a train that is confined to it's track, we cannot take ourselves off the track and move to any point we please. Instead, we must be "humbled" by the track of time and progress along it in a linear way to reach the destination the Lord has established for us.

It is a good thing to be a time bound being, otherwise God would not have made us this way! So although to God lifetimes are like a blinking of the eye, and he knows the end from the beginning, we are limited creatures wholly reliant on the Lord and confined to experience time in it's moment by moment passage.

We could here postulate how God relates to time itself and how our relationship to time may change when we're experiencing eternity, however that would probably fall under the category of unprofitable speculation. Instead let's turn our attention to what our "confinement" does for our view of the LORD Most High.

As time-bound beings we are forced to see the unfolding of God's love progressively. We cannot take it all in through one moment, but see it worked out in action. As the cliché goes, "love is a verb," this means that it is an action expressed or done, and we need to see it unfold in order to experience it and join it.

Think of a tennis match. If you look up the score after the match and see the numbers then you will know who won and by how much. Yet looking at a few numerals arranged in a simple pattern does not tell the story of the match. It does not show the performance and the struggle, it does not tell the full story as if you were to see the match yourself. And even if you could not see it live and in person, you still experience and understand the game in a more wholistic way if you watch the replay. The tension of the back and forth, the wonder at the skill of the players, the near-misses, the playful flourishes, the joy of the win... it's only truly known in the unfolding of time as you experience the match.

At the end of the day you could look at the score card that says the LORD 1 - Everyone else - 0. Yet there is so much more to the story than just the scorecard. It's important to know the score, but the score is the result of a long fought tournament with many matches. Over history the Lord has been unfolding a plan of salvation to reveal his glory and rescue his people. Some of it you cannot watch with your own eyes, but you can watch the replay (read the Bible) and in this very day you are observing another chapter in that ongoing unfolding of God's triumph in history! You know who the overall winner will be, but it remains to be seen how this present game will turn out and how this century will be won for the LORD.

In this time-bound mode of existence I would like to extend and invitation. This is an invitation that God himself extends in the Bible. The invitation is to look and see what God has done in time and history. See and thank and marvel and rest secure, knowing that God has always provided, and he will provide again!

"You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." (Dt 5:15).

"Come, behold the works of the Lord, 
    how he has brought desolations on the earth. 
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; 
    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; 
    he burns the chariots with fire. 
'Be still, and know that I am God. 
    I will be exalted among the nations, 
    I will be exalted in the earth!' ” (Ps 46:8–10).
    
We can look and see how God has saved his people and revealed his strength. The Lord's love toward his people has been demonstrated in his mighty acts of deliverance, and not just on one occasion but over and over and over again! It is one thing to know that the Lord loves and rescues his Church, and a beautiful experiential knowledge to have seen it expressed and demonstrated in the unfolding of time.

You do not have to look far to see this love expressed in time. Even if you have not observed mighty acts of deliverance with your own eyes, you have experienced the love of God expressed toward you every day:

"[God] did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." (Ac 14:17).

"For [the Father] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (Mt 5:45).

The LORD provides your very existence, even if you do not honour him or call on him as Lord, still he shows kindness to you all the days of your life. Look back and see the revealed love of God in time and thank Him. Better still throw yourself on his mercy, and ask that he might give you not only this life, but an eternal one! Ask that you might see God's love not only in the provision of your daily needs, but also see his love revealed in the person and work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

In Christ love is made eternally manifest in a moment of time: "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Ro 5:8). When Christ died on that cross, and rose again from the grave he revealed God's love, sacrificing himself for others and securing them a life beyond the grave.

You're invited to experience that love of God in time; from now until your dying day and then into eternity, live in this love by being united to Jesus Christ. Watch every unfolding sunrise proclaim once again the Lord is good and faithful and that his love is an everlasting love. His love shall never diminish or end, but will actively be expressed in every moment forevermore.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." (Je 31:3).