Now

Throughout the Bible, God is constantly telling stories: stories about how life began, stories about how life will end, and everything in between. Amidst the landscapes of these stories we establish our systematic theologies – what we believe about what. I would certainly argue for the validity of such endeavors. It is important to wrap our minds and lives around the reality of the Father creating, the Spirit sustaining, and the Son returning. I personally love to get lost in the amazing intricacies of God’s unfolding timeline. But, I hardly think understanding (or thinking we understand) the myriad of finite details within God’s historical plotline is His ultimate point. When the Lord does return, will it matter much that I guessed correctly or incorrectly His particular slant on eschatology? Perhaps, the point of such an exhaustive revelation of all the historically accurate and futuristically intriguing details is to reveal the God who holds the timeline in His hand. To reveal the God who seeks to interact with His creation in the present moment. Hebrews 3 pleads with us to enter into God’s rest daily, while it is called Today. In Psalm 90, the psalmist stands between a forgotten yesterday and a withering tomorrow crying, “Lord, teach us to live well today.” And in Micah 4 we see that God seeks to establish His Kingdom at the collision of attah (the duration of the moment) and olam (eternity –just outside the reach of the physical). All of history is laid out and played out that we might see the God who holds history in His hand and dwell with that eternal God in the duration of the moment. Study God’s revelation. Construct your systematic theologies. And with them purchase a glimpse of Almighty God in the fleeting breath that is the now.