THE QUEUE AND THE CIRCLE: PART 2

Previously: God’s timing is different from ours. He is able to operate in time and history; yet He is not bound by time as we know it. He dwells in eternity, and is able to move back and forth from the two realms of time and eternity to relate

to us and hear our prayers.

C S Lewis offers some interesting insights on this in his classic,

Mere Christianity:

Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not

consist of moments following one another. If a million

people are praying to Him at ten thirty tonight, He need

not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we

call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty – and every other moment from

the beginning of the world – is always the Present for Him.

If you like to put it that way, He has all eternity in which to

listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his

plane crashes in flames.

Lewis suggests that God has the leisure of eternity to respond to our

prayers. How this works is the subject of speculation and imagination

on the part of philosophers and theologians. Even if we are not so

inclined, we can still draw some lessons for our everyday lives.

Be assured that God is never in a hurry. He is not harassed or

stressed by challenges, demands and problems. He is never too busy to

pay close attention to our feeblest prayers, or to notice the simplest of

our acts. He feels with us our pains and sorrows, and counts every tear

that falls (Psalm 56:8).

God relates to us from His eternal perspective. He gives undivided

attention to each of us all the time, which is truly wonderful.

As Lewis says:

He has infinite attention to spare for each of us. He does

not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much

alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever

created. When Christ died, He died for you individually

just as much as if you had been the only man in the world.

This is neither an invitation to an individualistic approach to

salvation and discipleship, nor a call for a private, self-absorbed kind

of Christianity. However, it is a reminder of the personal nature of our

relationship with God in Christ that anchors all our other relationships.

The quality of God’s love and His attention for each of us is never

diluted by the number of people there are. He gives each of us so much

undivided attention that it may feel like all His attention is showered

upon an individual.

In fact, this is the way He relates to everyone. In His unhurried

way, He can examine our words eternally, or take an act of our worship

and dwell on it with divine pleasure. Our urgent cries for help receive

His eternal attention. He has all of eternity to respond to each of our

needs and aspirations. You cannot receive more attention, care or love

than that.

We do not queue up in God’s presence, waiting for our turn to

receive His attention. Instead we stand in a circle of love. God attends

to us with full attention given to one and all – all the time. Only He

can do this.

For reflection: Why is it better to stand in a circle than in a queue? How does

standing in a circle create a true community? What are the

implications for the church living in an individualistic and

consumerist society? Coming up next: Acts of being wearied for others are highly commendable and

speak of sacrifice and self-giving love. The greatest and most perfect

model of this is ...?