There’s something about us that just knows there is more to this life than this life. We have a divine, inherent fingerprint, if you will. Something lies beyond us. There is something more than us that makes “us” valuable. Even the diehard atheist will entertain speculations at times because, well, he just can’t help himself! He can deny God but he can’t erase the fingerprint.

Eternity is there, and we are on our way, each day, breath by breath, to entering into it. That can be a very fearful, daunting thought. Eternity for the believer is going to be everlasting bliss in the presence of God! Amazing. We get the “bliss” part and the “presence of God” part. It’s the “everlasting” part that, while we affirm it to be true, is still very far beyond us, very far beyond our reach. We believe in eternity; we just can’t grasp it. We can’t fathom endlessness. We have only known, tasted, touched, felt, seen that which had a beginning, and to accompany its start, had an ending as well. So eternity is part of our faith statement. We believe, based surely and certainly upon revelation, that we will live forever with the Lord because Christ has purchased our salvation. After death, we will not be dead. After death, we will never know death again. We believe it. We just can’t grasp it because we can’t comprehend it.

That is not to say God hasn’t left us with ways to comprehend eternity, for indeed He has. He has not only placed eternity within us, but He has also placed it right before us, right before our eyes. We deal with eternity every day in the form of an everyday application. God has pictured eternity for us through numbers, through mathematics.

Just think. The addition of numbers never, (did you catch that?), never comes to an end! Mathematics is eternal. Now I don’t know who’s adding the latest numbers but I’m sure through technology and the endless pursuit of useless information, someone, somewhere keeps adding “1” to an ever-growing number. Maybe they have reached 1 hundred, cazillion, dubillion, a billion by now. I don’t know. The point is whatever number man has reached at this point in time, there is ALWAYS room for 1 more number! Numbers never end! Mathematics is eternal.

So right there, right in front of us, with what we use every single day, is a picture of eternity. At least now we have some kind of way to wrap our minds around the ability to have the quality of being endless.

And when we are glorified in the presence of God, we will be endless, eternal, forevermore. There will ALWAYS be room for 1 more year! Numbers NEVER end, and neither do we.

Here’s another thought. Numbers go both ways. Numbers can go on for eternity in the negative realm. Ever wonder how God could “be” but never have a “be”ginning? Maybe we can understand something that never has an ending, but what do you do with something that never had a beginning? In other words, what do you do with God?

Well, He has given us numbers, mathematics, to help fathom His eternality. Numbers can go in reverse and never reach the starting number. They just keep going. There is ALWAYS room for 1 more negative number. In the same way, there has ALWAYS been room for God. He has no beginning, no starting point. He has always been and He will always be!