God is. He always was, always will be, and is ever accessible in the present. This is a hard concept to comprehend.
We are creatures existing in time and space, and everything around us was created. There was a time in which we and the rest of creation were not, and there is a time when this creation will cease to be. This is an easy concept to comprehend. Entrenched in the decay of death, we know how fleeting and fragile the material world can be.
Yet, the promise for Christians is that our reality is not what we can comprehend, but what we cannot. Human life, while created, has been infused with the divine life of God. As a result, for those who can accept it, our lives will be freed of mortality and take on the eternal life of God.
In some ways, this makes time an enemy. It can be seen as a prison trapping us from actualizing our eternal purpose. Because we are caught in the movement of time in space, it is difficult for us to imagine what life would be like outside it, yet we want it. It can be disorienting to have desires that pull us into the eternal while we remain limited.
These feelings are normal. It is natural that our hearts want to turn away from temporal death to life. But we must also look at time as a gift. In time, things can change (for better or worse). This means that the gift of free will is available to us. At any point, we can choose the life that God desires to give us. He does this so that we can know and experience His love in time so that we can choose it for eternity.
The gift of living with God in eternity means that we will have eternal gifts and honor that we cannot fathom. However, it can be our temptation to grasp after His gifts and honor within time without God. Since Adam and Eve’s first attempt to be like God without Him, almost every member of the human race has done the same, falling into sin. But Jesus has shown us the path to receiving these gifts. For even though He was God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Despite having all the ability to take whatever He desired, in time, Jesus waited for God to bestow the gifts God has willed according to His plan. Thus, Jesus humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. He follows God’s plan over his own desires. He chooses love. And because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name (Philippians 2:6-10)
When we choose love, we choose God. And when we exit time at our death, we meet our Creator. Our judgement will occur when we stand face to face with Love and recognize Him or reject Him based on how our temporal choices affected the disposition of our soul. Our choices in this life will culminate in one fundamental choice of embracing or turning away from the love of our Heavenly Father as we enter into our eternal moment. What ensues will be our Heavenly reward or eternal damnation for all eternity.
So as we continue in time, feeling the pull towards eternity, let us remember that Jesus has given us the path to eternal life. Even though we have the desire to be like God, we are not to use time as an arena to make a cheap imitation of our eternal reward. We will be like God, and we will receive His gifts and honors. But we must use time as a place to prepare for eternity. If we humbly choose love as Jesus did in time, we will be raised for eternity just as Jesus was.