The Time Beyond Time

Isaiah 9:7 – He will rule as King David's successor … from now until the end of time. (TEV)

At my workplace, there is a digital clock that's counting down to the year 2000. It tells everyone how many days and weeks until the 1900's are no more. If you work with computers, as I do, that's a big issue these days. That's because most of the old programs think a year starts with 19. There's lots of re-programming being done to have computers recognise years that start at 2000 and up.

Somewhere else in the cosmos, there is another clock running. It is also counting down the days. No human can tell what its face says, for it is counting down the time until God's Kingdom is fully established. Jesus said that no one, not Himself, nor the angels, only God, knows when time will end.

While we may not see it — then again, we might — that's an issue of concern to each Christian. In the Lord's prayer, Christians pray "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

The last Sunday in Pentecost is called in some denominations "The Reign of Christ." In all the Sundays of Pentecost, Christians have considered the work of the Holy Spirit on the first believers, through to the role of believers in the modern Church. This is a Sunday, just before Advent, when we are challenged to look beyond Pentecost, beyond time and space, to that time beyond time when the kingdom will come. The prophet Isaiah writes about a royal successor to King David, whose kingdom will be established and whose kingdom will never end.

I believe there has to be some "time" where this unfair world has to balance out. Children, who never got a childhood, get one. The people, who died too young to have grandchildren, play with theirs. For a couple of centuries, at least. A time where every tear is dried, and there is no more reason to cry any more.

C.S. Lewis says it's futile to speculate on the life beyond. What is not futile is hoping and praying and working for the coming kingdom. It will come. We just don't know when. Millions of people, around the world, pray the Lord's prayer every day. "Thy kingdom come…"

Glory be to God, it will!

Prayer: Eternal God, when we get caught up in details that don't mean a thing down here, help us remember that each day, Your kingdom is on the march, and each day it comes closer. Help us remember that you call us to be citizens of Your kingdom, and to help bring it about. Amen.

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