On Eternity

This is such a deep statement.  Just let that sink in – “participate in Being”.  It reminds me of Jesus’ statement, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”  Abraham participated in Being…Jesus IS Being. 

As stated in an earlier commentary, it’s impossible for us to fully grasp this thing we call eternity.  But trying to understand it is something that nourishes our minds and our souls.  You might call it ‘food for thought’.  We should at least contemplate on it once in a while. 

In our attempt to understand eternity, we find two things – our own limitations and God’s infinity. 

Other religions, philosophies, etc. have similar concepts in their ‘dogmas’.  For example, the idea of evolution stresses our unimportance in a world of constantly changing species.  In evolution, the universe itself is infinite.  Man becomes nothing more than a speck of sand on a beach, and the universe becomes nothing more than a random sequence of events.  Personally, I can’t see how this doesn’t just depress the heck out of anyone who believes it.  Imagine thinking yourself a tiny portion of an unimportant whole.  Is there any reason to continue in life?

Buddhism, on the other hand, gives man more credit than that.  Each man becomes the very universe itself.  Our thoughts of God are nothing more than a manifestation of our imagination.  This line is equally disturbing.  If man’s existence is the highest existence, then I see this world was doomed from the start.

But looking at this from the Christian viewpoint isn’t depressing at all.  Because, as stated above, we’re participating in something much greater – the Being that is God.  Now if we compare ourselves to God, we really do become small.  So small, in fact, that we might begin to wonder if we even exist at all.  This might seem to minimize our participation.

Now compare it to the billions of other ‘parts’ played by other people.  Again, we’re barely a grain of sand in the dessert.  We might be blown by the wind or baked by the sun, but our very existence could go unnoticed.  

Except it isn’t unnoticed.  The Creator, apparently, thinks our small part is so precious that He became one of us and subjected Himself to torture and death just to preserve our participation in His eternal Being. 

Here we see man’s paradox…being both great and small at the same time.  It is in our comparison with God that makes us small.  It is in our consideration of God’s love for us that makes us huge.

This is one of the true marks of Christian thought.  The evolutionists would have us believe that we’re nothing.  The Buddhists would have you believe that we’re everything.  Christianity brings the truth to light by showing us how both are possible.  And even when we struggle with ‘bad times’, the fact that we’re participating in such a great thing gives us some hope.

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