Is that the time? I thought it was (later/earlier)! … … … I am not sure how long it lasted for, it seemed like hours – but was probably only seconds! … … … As we get closer to (the event) time seems to have slowed down! Come on clock – hurry up!! … … … Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday we were weeks away from (this event) – and now here it is! … … …

And the most loved phrase from the back of a long car journey …

“Are we there yet?”
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We so often think of time as static, measured, counted, allocated. A clock counting down from our birth to our death. It certainly is not eternity here on earth. Eternity is what you get after you die, after you meet your Maker, after you get to heaven. That’s eternity.

Are we there yet?  Maybe a child “gets” eternity here on earth!  I think we all get eternity here on earth.

When we put down the clocks, the watches, the phones, the tablets, the computers, the diaries, the second counting minute eating time hungry devices we all run our lives by.  Because I hear so many dwell on the pain of this cruel world. All the disharmony. All the dissent. All the evil. All the sin. I hear so many calling for our Lord to return. To take us in His arms. To save us from this corrupt world.  This wicked world.

Is this not the same world He created for our enjoyment, our growth, our learning, our community, our pleasure … ?

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’ John 6:35-40

Maybe we have something very fundamental to learn from “becoming a child” again …

That time is elastic. That “God O’clock” is right now.  That eternity is what WE make of OUR time here on earth.  That Love is not less than time – that Love is greater than death – so Love is greater than time itself.  If we allow.

“Are we there yet?”

‘I am the bread of life … never hungry … never thirsty … never drive away … this is the will of him who sent me … lose nothing … raise it up … the last day”

 There never is a “last day” when your head is asking “Are we there yet?” There is only today, right now, this second, this minute –

And there are none of the labels we place on our own small slices of eternity – all those small slices we must count to make sure we do not lose any – all those slices we see flying past us too quickly – all these small chunks of eternity we mourn the passing – the ones we call “time” …

So I wonder this: Just why do we yearn for the eternity to come …

When we mourn the eternity we ALREADY have?