From pier to eternity

How old are you?

There are two piers at North Myrtle Beach. I viewed the first, ruined by a recent hurricane and no longer accessible, at dawn. I am now below the second one under a strong October sun. It’s a popular spot with fishermen. I can see them lined up in silhouette like notes above a staff of written music.

Today, I am filled with musing about eternal life. In my devotional time this morning, I dug deeply into the phrase – probably for the first time in my long life of following Jesus – prompted by my slow study of the Gospel of John. Here’s a sample:

“…the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”  John 3:14-15

It is easy to see the ocean horizon as a visual metaphor for eternity, for the next life. And in this analogy I’m crafting, the pier represents the human desire to reach out into that unknowable existence, like the books dedicated to life-after-death experiences. (As with most of my analogies, this one can carry about as much weight as that ruined pier. So, let’s leave boats out of it, shall we?)

The shoreline is a kind of frontier edge. I turn around and notice the buildings like sentinels against this thin strip of sand. Civilization goes this far and no farther. The ocean is a wholly different mode of living. Such is eternity: we approach the edge of our life defined by biological clocks and wonder what could possibly lie beyond.

This is why the word eternal is so interesting. The Greek word, aionios, literally means “of the age.” (We get eon from that root.) So, how do we get from the phrase life of the age to eternal life?

I’ve always had a forward-looking understanding of eternal life, assuming it’s about what happens after we die. But aionios doesn’t focus on the future alone. It focuses on the nature of the age it points to. What is the nature of that eon?

Let me ask it this way: How old is God? The answer, of course, is that the question is irrelevant. God has no beginning. He is the great I AM – always was, is now and will be. That, then, is the nature of his eon. It encompasses all time. Or more accurately, is above it.

 

When we believe in Jesus, we step into that defining life. We take on that nature. It’s as if (back to my analogy) we are now latently amphibious. At the appointed time, can just stroll into the ocean and experience that world, as well. No more peering (or piering, as it were) into eternity. We already live with it inside us.

So how old are you? Even though all our bodies continue to countdown, in Jesus you are ageless. You are a child of eternity. You share in the very nature of the Ageless One.

Fundamentally, time is as irrelevant to you as it is to him.

The question now is: how should this change how we live while on this shore?

Eternal God, untouched by time, you give us such an amazing gift in this “life of the age.” Show us what it means to life in this age.

Reader: What, to you, are the implications of having such a life inside you?