Eternity is a very long time. They tell us the universe is 15 billion years old, give or take 3 or 4 billion years, but 15 billion years is not eternity. Eternity is longer than that because 15 billion years, or even 30 billion years, implies that there was a point where it all started, and the astronomers tell us there was a point where it all started. Eternity didn’t start. Eternity was before that.

You know, I can get my mind a little bit around the idea of time not ending—of there never going to be an end to things. God will last forever and ever and ever. But I have a hard time getting my mind around the fact that there was no start, no beginning, that He always has been.

What do you suppose it’s all about? Surely God didn’t just start all this and walk away, and leave it to run down. What are we, some sort of cosmic ant farm? As members of this earthly ant farm, we have vested interests in knowing what’s going on here. Because if we can discern the purpose of God, if we can discern that there is a purpose, then there is one who has purposed, and we have answered the question of his existence, and gone on to something a lot more important than that.