Forever and ever

On the way to eternity

Written by Theresa Nhật Lai Ngô on Saturday, January 20, 2024

Does anything last forever these days?

The jeans look more than “stonewashed” after a few times in the washing machine.

After at least two years, the smartphone is old and worth a ton. A new smartphone is needed because three cameras are no longer enough.

The friend that was once forever is long gone and replaced.

More beautiful, smarter, better, more useful. And yet everything passes.

What remains? The Word of God.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Lukas 21, 33

The Word of God remains. God's Word made flesh so that we could understand, see and experience it. God's Son remains forever. If we believe this, it gives us hope and confidence, because with Him we are all saved. God's Word is also His promise to us. This remains until it is fulfilled. Guaranteed. For He never breaks His word and His covenant with us is eternal. He has proven this often enough in human history.

Finite things end. Infinite things remain. Actually logical.

In the case of a marriage covenant, “forever” extends, in the best case, until death.

What else is infinite and eternal?

What else is forever?

that, WE.

Every human life is an aspect of God, an image of God. And God is infinite, eternal. From this it follows: Every person is an eternal facet of God. Every human being is infinite, forever, everlasting, immortal.

This also means that if a person were not born, if life were denied, an eternal facet of the infinite that allows us to learn a little more about God would be missing. Seen the other way around: As long as we still have children, this is a clear sign that God loves us. He lets us participate in His creative power and lets us contribute to infinity with every child that is born.

We are for eternity.

Therefore strive for the infinite and not for finite things.

Carlo Acutis (died of cancer in 2006 at the age of 15)

Now that doesn't just mean have lots of children... It's also such a good strategy to focus on the infinite. And yet we keep falling into the trap of thinking that finite things can fulfill us and make us happy. But fullness and finitude obviously contradict each other. What is used up needs replenishment. At some point the chocolate cake will be gone. Ate the ice cream. Watched the film. Made the trip. Earthly life is over. What was full becomes empty because it was finite. And now? How long do we go around in circles until we realize that finite things are finite and cannot fulfill us? Until we realize that what is infinite and eternal is much more worth striving for.

But do we still believe in eternity?

We don't have to believe in that, we find out at the latest when someone close to us dies. The love relationship with the loved one lives on, even after death. Love remains. Focusing on the infinite also becomes clear shortly before your own death. One of the biggest regrets people who die soon have is not having spent enough time with the people they love. Coincidence?

People. Relationship. Love. Infinity. That's ultimately what it's all about.

God is love + God is eternal => Love is eternal.

Love cannot exist without a lover or a beloved.

God, the lover. We humans, the loved ones.

God shows us how. He himself is a love affair in himself. A perfect triad of love. Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

God has “no choice” because He is Love, He “must” save us all so that we can be with Him forever, otherwise He would deny Himself.

This all seems consistent and consistent.

What beautiful faith and what an incredible God has been given to us!

Maybe that's why so few people believe in it.

It is and remains simply incredible.

Too good to be true... but no, why so suspicious?

Too good to not to be true.

Thanks to our Creator, our God, we have eternal life in relationship with Him. He wants nothing more than that.

But it only happens if we want that too.

Incomprehensible.