“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”

- Galatians 4:4-6

Is time moving faster than it used to? I often tell my high school friends I am three times their age so time moves three times faster for me – at least relatively. I know the last ten minutes of school in the 3^rd grade felt like a week does now. Now a twenty minute nap feels much shorter than a twenty minute run. Maybe this is why the Greeks had two words for time – one for chronological and one for a kind of time. 

Some social philosophers suggest technology compresses time by speeding up communication, transportation, and production. Simply put, time seems to move faster because we can move faster in time and do more things at one time (or at least think we can). The present feels shorter. Certainly this delivers some benefits but it also exacts some costs – in meaning, morals, and relationships to name a few. 

For many, if not most of us, this compression of the present makes us feel a constant sense of anxiety about falling behind or a depressed sense of not keeping up. Everything changes and is changing so fast. It’s the world we know and the world as we know it. 

C.S. Lewis wrote of how as humans we focus on the past and the future but that God focuses on the present and on eternity. We are distracted by our regrets or nostalgia about the past or by our hopes and fears about the future. God, on the other hand, is eternal – without beginning or end. God is the eternally present One! 

At Christmas, we celebrate how the eternal God became a human being in Jesus Christ. John writes that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Paul writes above about how this took place in the “fulness of time.” Eternity stepped into time to help us understand that we are eternal beings living in time, to show us how to live in time as eternal beings, and to enable us to live in eternity with Him. The awareness of eternity enables us to live well in time. 

This Advent season, we will prepare for Christmas by looking at Jesus’ coming to us in the Gospel of John. The story of Jesus is the story of God with us because He comes to us. We will see how Jesus comes to us in our loneliness, depression, anxiety, shame, and sadness to give us His presence, hope, peace, grace and joy.. 

I hope that you will make the time to be with us in our worship and study to practice His presence with us together. May our focus on eternity stepping into time help us make sense of our lives as eternal beings living in time. 

Your friend, 

Steve Wise