Hints of Time Beyond Time

...for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.
- St. Augustine

Out my window from my spot on the sofa, I see the orchid tree blooms of purple. They have exploded on the tree, every limb is aflame with flowers, as happy as can be, dancing in the breezes. It is truly spring as the trees are all bursting. The birds chirp cheerfully. I take it all in, with a sense of wonder and appreciation. The beauty of nature is a fleeting thing. It fades with the seasons, but returns later, but it is never quite the same. It shifts and changes with the seasons.

We, similarly, shift and change with time. Yet we are spiritual and bodied creatures with souls and a place beyond this fleeting moment. I thank the Lord for that, as the glories of this life are all but a tiny glimpse of the glory God has in store for us in the time beyond. The time beyond time requires much of our imaginations to even ponder. Eternity is written on the pages of our hearts.

When the time comes in our own sense of time, when the shores of the New Creation come, we will know that the great joke is that we were wrong about so many things, and it doesn't matter! What is in store is even better than what we were wrong about! He is coming, coming. The echo is there all the days we know. We are in the in-between now, waiting for the sun to rise.

George MacDonald echoes this beautifully in his books, Phantastes and Lilith, and I borrow from his language often. For my own imagination, these books are solid favourites that I return to again and again. These kinds of stories help me use my imagination to see into the beyond from our current state of guessing. The imaginative realm sets my soul aflame with deep thoughts and musing that leaves me with a newly awakened trusting in God and all the plans He has for those who love Him. As we begin Lent, I pray we may all be more attentive to that which God would like us to focus on, rather than what the world tries to convince us to focus on.