When someone is 100% certain of something that they do not see ever happening, something they think can never actually happen, they might say, “not in a zillion years.” I vaguely remember saying that somewhere in the past.
Then I got to thinking about how long of a time period a zillion years actually is, and how that compares to eternity.
The way time moves along upon the earth, a thousand years, which is also known as a millennium, seems like a pretty long time even though a millennium is as one day to the Lord according to Psalm 94 and 2 Peter 3:8.
A million years seems like a ridiculously long time. What about a billion years? Or a trillion years?
A zillion years makes a trillion years seem like a quick jog around the block.
So then, what about eternity?
God, our Heavenly Father, has promised eternal life to all who believe in Him and trust in Him through His beloved Son Jesus.
Eternal life is forever and ever and ever. That would make a zillion years seem like a three-week vacation.
Eternal life means to live forever and ever and forevermore without end.
Not for even one second will living forever be boring.
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and it has not entered into the hearts or minds of men what God has planned for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
What has been revealed is that we will receive eternal bodies free of corruption of any kind and not subject to temptation. Our new bodies will never get sick, never grow old, and never die.
We as believers, will have these new bodies to experience all of the wonderful things God has prepared for us in eternity.
Somewhere along the line, a false concept of eternal life in heaven slipped into the collective consciousness of humanity. It is the false belief that those who make it to heaven will be bored out of their minds for all eternity while forced to sit on a cloud playing the same sad tune on a harp, over and over and over again forever.
This false vision of heaven was infused and inserted into the collective mind of humanity by none other than guess who? For those who recall, the old SNL church lady portrayed by Dana Carvey had the answer. Do I even need to say the name of the one who came up with the concept of boredom in Heaven? Could it be you know who?
To be sure, being condemned to eternally play the same sad tune repeatedly on a harp while perched on a cloud sounds much more like a punishment in hell rather than a reality in heaven.
Not in a zillion years, or ever, would our Heavenly Father impose anything resembling boredom on any of His forever family.
We will all be far too busy doing wonderful things to be bored, or to take part in anything so silly and redundant.
There might very well be harps playing in Heaven; however, it will be by amazing harp players inspired by God to take harp playing to whole new levels of brilliance and beauty. And, these heavenly harpists will have an endless repertoire of songs and melodies to choose from, as well as being able to sit anywhere they want to, including on a cloud, to worship and glorify our awesome God.
Clouds, by the way, are very beautiful. I once had an amazing dream about surfing a 200-foot cloud wave in super slow motion.
After paddling into the wave, it took a very long time to drop all the way to the bottom of the wave where I was able to carve a gigantic bottom turn that projected me far down the line and into a humongous cloud wave tube ride. I was so far inside that giant barrel, only a tiny opening was visible at the far end about a mile away. Again, the entire ride was in super slo-mo, so it took what seemed like an hour or so to complete the ride. I finally rode my surfboard up over the top and off into a deep blue sky.
I have ridden some amazing actual waves on planet Earth, but that cloud wave topped them all.
Was it a preview of what is to come? I do not know but would not be at all surprised. The possibilities are endless, much like eternity itself.
Bible scriptures make it crystal clear that God, our Heavenly Father, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit, who guides all believers, love us more than we can even comprehend. Truly, the creative abilities of God are unlimited.
This amazing love for us was proven to be an actual fact on the cross at Calvary.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
It is unthinkable that God, who loves us that much, would impose a thing such as boredom, or anything at all that could be construed as bogus, upon His beloved children to whom He had just bestowed life eternal.
Almighty God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has always lived forever.
The only difference between eternity before the creation of the physical universe and earthly history, and eternity after the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, will be that an entire forever family of redeemed humans will accompany God and all of the good angels into that next phase of eternity.
Simply put, God came out of eternity for a little time and created a visible universe with a life-sustaining planet called Earth, and living breathing humans to whom God gave an amazing thing called free will.
The free will to choose between good and evil. The free will to choose to love God or to reject Him. The free will to choose whether we want to be with God forever throughout eternity or not.
God created the angels first and also gave them free will. One of the angels made a poor choice with the gift of free will and chose to rebel against the One that created him.
It was the very first sin.
The wayward angel who was named Lucifer was banished to Earth. This coincided with the timeframe of Adam and Eve living in and being caretakers of the Garden of Eden.
Lucifer, who also became known as Satan, assumed the form of a snake and slyly confronted Eve with the first known lie. Lucifer was attempting to induce Eve to rebel against God the Creator just as he had already done. It worked.
Eve believed the lie and convinced Adam to do the same. He did.
Together, they bought into the untruth that God was to be disbelieved and Lucifer, the inventor of lying, was to be believed.
They bought the lie that if they ate the forbidden fruit, which would allow them to know all about good and evil, they would and could become like God, and that they would not surely die as God had said they would.
It was a lie, but they believed it.
As a result of that poor choice by the world’s first couple, the virtue that God had created them with became tainted, became compromised. Thus the Godly nature that God had originally created within them in His own image became fallen.
All of their descendants, including you and I, inherited the fallen nature of Adam and Eve and have had to choose of our own free will between good and evil. Between God and the devil, between light and darkness, between bitter and sweet, and between truth and deception.
It seems fair to surmise that if both Adam and Eve had obeyed God and rejected that lie from Lucifer, the Garden of Eden would have remained undefiled, and Adam and Eve would have remained virtuous and uncorrupted, continuing in a state of being as to where they would never die, and the first creation would have remained perfect forever.
Hence, no need for a new heaven and a new earth.
The only thing that would have been missing is the multitudes of human beings that have chosen of their own free will and continue to choose to be a part of God’s Forever Family.
Oh, and two other things that would have been missing. You and me.
Almighty God is the sovereign creator, and He did the whole thing His way. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways.
Neither I nor you nor any ancestor of Adam and Eve has ever possessed the ability to create life or is in any way capable of sustaining life for even one second, let alone for all eternity.
God is not being egotistical in claiming all of the praise and glory. The simple truth is that only He deserves it, and truth is a vital part of who God is.
When we humans give Him all of the praise and the honor and the glory freely, of our own free will, and in a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness and graciousness, our precious Lord – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – loves us all the more for it.
The most beautiful blessings imaginable as well as amazing blessings we have no concept of quite yet are in store for all who love God.
And such blessings are promised by Him to us for all eternity.
All eternity is, believe it or not, uncountable light years longer than a zillion years.
That is forever and ever and ever without end.
I pray that whoever may read this, if they have not already done so, will choose Jesus and receive the eternal blessings of He who has lived forever and will continue to live forever.
Romans 10:9-10 explains simply and beautifully how to call on our Heavenly Father and become saved, and how to become a welcome addition to the eternal family of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Shalom in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Rick Segoine