For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Eternity. Contrary to my elementary concept, Frederick Buechner suggests that eternity is where all time melds in to one – past, present and future. The Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. Chronos is source of our word chronological, and is a linear and sequential time. This is the time we are squarely rooted. We have yesterdays, nows, and tomorrows. To our chronos-rooted brains, eternity must mean living forever, or where our tomorrows are endless. But God does not live in chronos. God lives in kairos, which is more like the perfect time, or the right time, or outside time. God is at our yesterdays, nows and tomorrows, all at the same time. God does not experience time sequentially. God does not have a chronometer.
Buechner argues that we sometimes see and experience kairos, or God’s vision of eternity. We experience it at particularly poignant moments – births or deaths, or I’d add at some moments of immense natural beauty, like the vastness of the ocean or a beautiful sunset. While we are firmly standing in chronos, sometimes, we see kairos. I have a priest friend who used to take off his watch during communion, as he wanted to intentionally banish chronos for that time to commune with God.
God, on the other hand has his feet firmly planted in kairos. It is with Jesus’ humanly form that God experiences our chronos. Jesus knew the sequential passing of time. He knew his friend Lazarus had died – past. He knew asked his friends to stay awake with him – present. And he knew he was heading to the cross – future. Through Jesus, God knows what it’s like to dread something in the future or pine for something in the past. This is comforting to me, to know that even though God lives in some alternate time reality, God understands my time reality. Additionally, it’s comforting to know that to God, time is concurrent. God’s already at my tomorrow, which bends to meet my yesterday.
I have had a few instances where my sense of chronos stopped and I stepped in to kairos. The most striking was when I was present for my granddaughters’ births, I could see all the time raising their mom, of lessons from my mom, of the current joy, and all of their tomorrows. A less monumental occasion is when I make music. I can get lost in time. I believe I come by that naturally. We had an organ in the living room that my father played. My mother had to manually go turn it off to get his attention at supper time. He was absolutely lost. To be clear, I don’t play the organ, and don’t play anything that well, but time gets all warped some times when I do.
This morning, I’m thinking about those moments where I get to experience kairos, and am grateful that God does all the time, so he’s already at whatever tomorrow brings.
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