Off the beaten path

My march down memory lane

I am neck deep in nostalgia. Going through a thousand family slides, dating back to the 1940s, will do that to a person. I’ve stored them for decades, but with my parents gone, there’s no need to keep the two large boxes of them.

I’m saving only the ones that are key touchstones, or ones of exceptional beauty. For the former, this shot of my grandfather – who I barely knew – standing with his prized new car is noteworthy for this is the very vehicle, as the passed-down story has it, that my grandmother accidentally drove through the back wall of the garage.

 

Viewing eighty years of family history is a sobering task. With each discarded slide, I commit those memories to the yawning maw of forgetfulness. I feel the brevity of life as I see my parents turn from vital college students to elderly retirees in the space of a few days.

This theme of memories won’t let me go.

Memories. Does God need to remember? It’s an intriguing question. On one hand, since he is outside of time, there’s no need for recollection. He sees the entirety of history continually. He exists in the eternal Now. He was, and is, and ever shall be. All at once.

But when we turn to Scripture, we hear him talking about remembering. He says repeatedly that he will “remember his covenant” (Lev. 26:42). And in Jeremiah 31:34, a verse the author of Hebrews quotes twice, we read:

“No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

This is part of what it must mean to be “of the age” (the literal translation of “eternal life”). Pictured here is the coming fullness of life in the Kingdom. Full and pervasive knowledge of God. And his decision to let our sins fade into oblivion – committing those slides to the trash, as it were.

But we can experience this coming reality, at least in part, right now! Jesus says, “Now this is (life of the age): that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

What does it mean for us in the present? We are such creatures of time. We associate life with sequence: day follows day, the years add up. (Not to mention the photos.) Granted, that path could have the twists and turns of a roller coaster, but it’s still directional. It’s natural for us to think that eternal life means that the path just continues forever.

With the Jeremiah verse in mind, it seems that eternal life means much more than that. We are set free from marching the path of time. We know the I AM personally and gain his perspective. We no longer need to carry the burden of past sins.

Even as we continue to walk time’s trail, we don’t belong to it. It’s like we can finally stop focusing on the ducks and take in the grandness of creation around us.

The big picture. Yes, that’s one worth keeping.

God of eternity, it’s hard for us to conceive how we can be of eternity right now. We feel so confined and defined by time. Give us, in every moment, your bigger perspective.

Reader: I’d love to hear what you think it means to live eternally in the present moment.