“Eternity is Coming”

William Russell, of England, was on a scaffold about to be beheaded. He took his watch from his pocket and gave it to Dr. Burnett, who was attending to him.  Russell told the Doctor, “My timepiece may be of service to you; I have no further occasion for it. My thoughts are fixed on eternity.”

On earth, we are bound by time.  Time is our main focus.  Schedules and deadlines demand our attention to the point of saturation.  We have exams, bills coming due and tax time approaching. 

Eternity is an extremely hard concept for man to comprehend. In fact, eternity is so incomprehensible to the mind of mortal man that in all the King James Version of the Bible the word “eternity” occurs only one time. That’s in Isaiah 57:15 where the prophet says “God, inhabits eternity.”  Perhaps we’re just too wrapped up in day-to-day occurrences of the “here and now.” Whatever the reason, there is no doubt, we would benefit by giving more attention to the biblical teaching of the “there and then.”  It is very uncharacteristic of humans to consider a realm where time does not exist.  Yet, we must!

We can only come to an understanding of eternity by following Paul’s instruction to the Colossians to “set your affections on things above and not on things of this earth.”  In order to survive on earth everyone needs to think more about the real final frontier - ETERNITY ITSELF.