Why Thinking About Eternity Makes My Brain Hurt

Bloggers Note: This week the Family Life Blog is looking at our finiteness against the backdrop of God’s Infinity. Let God be Big!

Did you ever tell yourself, ‘I need to think about eternity more’. So you close your eyes and begin to ponder the great timelessness…and then wake up half an hour later having dreamed about eating cheeseburgers? Well, maybe its just me.

In his small classic Redemption, Accomplished and Applied, John Murray offers some reality check on our confidence that we can ponder eternal existence.

“We cannot think in terms of eternity; we have no eternal thought. Only God’s thought possesses that attribute because he alone is eternal. When we try to think of eternity we realize the limits of our understanding and we are reminded that eternity is incomprehensible to us. But we must think of eternity and think of it in such a way that the more we are aware of the limits of our understanding the more enhanced becomes our appreciation of the marvel of God’s eternal purpose and grace.” (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 92)

Do you see the helpful wisdom he is giving? We can’t think eternal thoughts – our imaginations are bound by the time realities this side of heaven. We can ponder; we can wonder, but we can’t grasp eternity. But rather than discouraging us, these limits should fuel our worship of the One who is Eternal – and the one whose purpose and grace is to one day introduce our puny minds to first hand experience of timeless joy!