Eternity

A long jog this morning and I realised a truth that brought tears to my eyes.

I just finished reading CS Lewis' 'The Great Divorce', which is a fictional tale of a man's journey to hell and heaven. Many profound ideas that I am still mulling over, but the concept of Eternity and Time kept coming to the fore.

The idea of God who is an Author of all and who can step in and out of the stream of Time at any moment was explored in Jostein Gaardner's 'Sophie's World'. Gaardner proposed that while an author of a book may take one year to write the sentence 'Sophie waited for an hour', to the character of Sophie, only one hour has passed. So too God can step in and out of our human timeframes.

CS Lewis proposes that the promises of the Bible (eg. 'that none shall perish') can and will come to pass in the timeframe of Eternity. More than that, he wrote of Christ descending to hell to preach, that even in hell, souls have a choice for redemption.
I researched and found this to be verified - "Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)" Romans 10:7

This blew my mind. I have underestimated the love and mercy of God. When my father had died, both my sister and I had received many assurances about his salvation.
But on some nights, I have my doubts.
Last year, I had a beautiful, incredibly vivid dream of my father thanking my mother for bringing us up. He gave her three rings representing each of us daughters, and assured her that he was well.
But still, there are times I wonder, what were his last thoughts?

After reading of this incredible interpretation of heaven and hell - I know that God's mercy extends through time, space, religious legalism, doubts and fear.

Rich Mullins wrote this song inspired by Psalm 139 - Nothing is Beyond You.

Where could I go, where could I run
Even if I found the strength to fly
And if I rose on the wings of the dawn
And crashed through the corner of the sky
If I sailed past the edge of the sea
Even if I made my bed in Hell
Still there You would find me

'Cause nothing is beyond You
You stand beyond the reach
Of our vain imaginations
Our misguided piety
The heavens stretch to hold You
And deep cries out to deep
Singing that nothing is beyond You
Nothing is beyond You*

Time cannot contain You
You fill eternity
Sin can never stain You
Death has lost its sting
And I cannot explain the way
You came to love me
Except to say that nothing is beyond You
Nothing is beyond You
If I should shrink back from the light
So I can sink into the dark
If I take cover and I close my eyes
Even then You would see my heart
And You'd cut through all my pain and rage
The darkness is not dark to You
And night's as bright as day

*And I cannot explain the way You came to love me
Except to say that nothing is beyond You
Nothing is beyond You
Nothing is beyond You.

Finally I've learnt what this song means.

'Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day.'
-Lamentations 3:23