Before Time And Beyond Time

I have been pondering recently the fact that we seem to take the measure of darn near everything we do and most of what we feel. And I am wondering whether this obsession of sorts with measurement tends to confine rather than liberate. We learn the importance of dimensions very early in life, measuring length, width, height, depth, area and volume. All these measurements are valuable tools that provide knowledge and the ability to assess ourselves and the world around us. Time is not really a dimension, yet we think of time as dimensional because we can measure its passage. But if all we really embrace is the measurable dimension of time, are we missing a vast universe before time and beyond time? Of course, we know this, and we have words to acknowledge it, like eternity and forever. The OED has its own definition of time as the “indefinite progress of existence and events.” It seems to me, though, that if we ignore the immeasurable as beyond our understanding and therefore of little use to us in life’s journey, we may also miss God.

Consider, for example, our story of Jesus Messiah. Two thousand years ago, as we measure time, a child was born, a son, to Mary in Bethlehem. We know this happened because Luke researched the story carefully and wrote it down. This child was very special, a savior, the Messiah, according to the angels who announced the birth. The child grew to become an itinerant preacher, steeped in knowledge of Scripture and able to perform miraculous healings. The entire story is well within our grasp of understanding because it is told in the familiar dimensions of time and space. As Christians we can even make the leap of faith that this Jesus was somehow the son of God incarnated to be with us to teach us God’s saving grace.

All this learning, though, is only the half the story. The disciple John would have us know that Jesus was with God in the beginning (ie, before time). And “through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (Jn. 1: 2-3). John reports an argumentative exchange in the temple courts between Jesus and a group of Pharisees in which Jesus begins to assert his identity as one who has come from God the Father, not on his own, but because “God sent me.” (Jn. 8: 42). When the Pharisees ask Jesus if he thinks he is greater than their father, Abraham, Jesus replies, “Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am!”, invoking his oneness with God and the eternity of his being. (Jn. 8:58; see also God’s “I am” assertion Ex. 3:14). Further, on the night before his death, Jesus asked God to glorify him “with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (Jn. 17:5. Also 17:24)

Both Peter and Paul shared John’s convictions on this matter. Peter asserted that God chose Christ before the creation of the world (1Pe. 1:20). Paul asserted that God promised eternal life before the beginning of time ( Titus 1:2), and “this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.” (1Ti 1:9). These three men demonstrated by their writings that they shared a deep understanding of the immeasurable universe occupied by God before time and beyond time, as well as in time. This understanding liberated them from the confines of what was measurable. Through Jesus, God has acquainted us not only with God’s power and grace, but also with the “indefinite,” eternity, the forever, far beyond our comprehension but well within our capacity to embrace, all perhaps that we may make use of the measurable without being imprisoned by it.

Thanks be to God.