A Glimpse of Eternity

I have recently returned from a place that, prior to going, captivated my imagination in all its natural beauty. It is a place that is virtually untouched by urban development; a place that is hugely photographed and widely advertised. It is a place that exhibits natural wonder and beauty.

No specific photo can do this place justice. The true beauty, magnitude, grandeur and expanse of it all, simply cannot be grasped in one’s mind until it is personally experienced. The photos merely provide a glimpse of what is absolutely spectacular and breathtakingly magnificent. I recall on many occasions being lost for words – unable to express the overwhelming joy that filled my heart as I marvelled at the awesome handiwork of our Creator God. As I stood still for a moment – a mere fleck on the spectrum of the vast landscape above and below my feet, my mind was filled with verses of praise from the Bible.

      ‘I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High’ ~Psalm 9:1-2

I watched the sun slowly descend towards and dip below the horizon. Daylight lingers as if left behind. The rich, warm pastels stretch across the expanse of the vast desert landscape and up into the endless expanse. The clouds displayed a glowing vibrance as it locked in the rich golden tones emitted by the beaming ball of light on the horizon.

Uluru (Ayers Rock - NT) sunset

As the light of day fades, the vast, rich array of colours soften and deepen as ‘the sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night’ (Haruki Murakami).

 

One by one, the stars begin to peep through the darkness, and ‘…light the universe with their admonishing smile’ (Ralph Waldo Emerson). One ‘star’, in particular seems to beam its radiant light brighter than all the others – and it is first to appear in the nighttime sky. The evening star. Also the morning star. It is actually the planet Venus.

I lifted my eyes to the heavens. The beauty and exquisite detail of a sky luminous with more stars than I had ever seen before was breathtaking. Truly, 'no sight is more provocative of awe than the night sky' (Lleweyn Powys).

In that very moment I was overcome by God’s omnipotence (unlimited power), His omnipresence (present everywhere), His omniscience (infinite knowledge) and His omnibenevolence (perfect goodness). I was amazed at the thought that God placed them there with His hand, and knows ‘each (one) by name’! (Psalm 147:4)

      ‘He stretches out the heavens like a canopy… He brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing’ ~Isaiah 40 22b & 26.

It was a clear, moonless night, where urban air and light pollution ceased to exist. Clearly visible to the human eye was the hazy band of white light that characterises the ‘Milky Way’ – the galaxy in which our solar system is. From where we stand on earth, this dim glowing band resembled a luminous arch of cirrus cloud across the night sky.

Cirrus cloud

What makes it more amazing, more wonderful and more glorious is the fact that the glowing band is itself made up of thousands of stars in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individually. Of the 5,000 to 8,000 stars in the Milky Way visible to the human eye from Earth, one can usually only see about 2,500 at a time. In fact, the few thousand stars we can see of the Milky Way with our naked eye are only about 0.000003% of the 200-400 billion stars that inhabit the Milky Way! (universetoday.com) Wow… It is was and remains impossible for my finite mind to comprehend it, in its entirety.

I was conscious of the Bible verse, ‘Be still and know that I am God’ ~Psalm 46:10a (emphasis mine).

Know that God is the Creator of our universe (Genesis 1:1 & Revelation 4:11); that He is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 22:13). Know that He is our Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Know that He is the Lord Almighty, the King of Glory (Psalm 24:10). Know this in your heart.

For a brief moment, I felt so small, so insignificant; a mere fleck, on this little blue planet that hangs (in space) on nothing (Job 26:7b), in this endless, boundless universe. “Who am I?” I thought.

      ‘When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?’ ~Psalm 8:3-4

I know full well, as the Bible tells me so that I am His. He is mine. We are His. He is ours.

He died for me and He died for you.

      ‘How mighty must He be who made the stars as ‘the work of (His) fingers’ (Psalm 8:3). How wise must He be who knows the number of each one (Psalm 147:4). How lofty must He be who humbles Himself to ‘look on the things that are in heaven’ (Psalm 113:6). Ah, but how loving must He be who came to this little orb and, on His way to the Cross... slept on… a hillside with the stars as His only canopy [see Matthew 8:20]’ (excerpt from Foreword written by J. B. Nicholson, Jr, taken from H. C. Howlett’s The Glories of Our Lord).

That still, quiet moment will forever be etched in my mind. It was a moment where I experienced the splendor and majesty of God on a profound scale; where I was filled with awe and overcome with immense love, joy, peace, gladness, stillness, gratitude and appreciation as I pondered the Glory of God and His goodness, graciousness, mercy and love. It is moments like these, when we are amazed by the natural wonder and beauty of God’s creation that I believe we get a glimpse of eternity.

‘For great is your love, reaching to the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the skies’ ~Psalm 57:10. ‘How priceless is your unfailing love!’ ~Psalm 36:7.

 ‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ ~Romans 5:8.

The Lord tells us, ‘You are precious and honoured in my sight… I love you’ ~Isaiah 43:4a

If you were to count His thoughts towards you, ‘they would outnumber the grains of sand’. Psalm 139: 17-18

I love the words of a hymn I recently heard, written by Geron Davis:

I'm glad I know Who Jesus is!
I'm glad I know who Jesus is!
He's more than just a story;
He is the King of Glory.
I'm glad I know Who Jesus is.

He's the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End;
He's Counsellor, Deliverer to me.
He's the Everlasting Father; He is the King of Glory,
I'm glad I know Who Jesus is!


AMEN!