“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
— Matthew 22:36-40, NIV.
In the movie Interstellar, when Cooper entered the Tesseract, he was able to see the entirety of time from the beginning to the end, all at once. In it, he struggled to find a method of communication to communicate with his daughter, Murph. However, being trapped in a specific frame of space in Murph’s bedroom’s bookshelf, he found absolutely no way to communicate with her other than to tweak that fabric of space by shifting the second’s needle on Murph’s watch — the watch that he left with her before leaving for space.
God sees time in a way that is vastly different from us. He does not experience time in a linear manner the way we experience time. Rather, to Him, all times happen all the time. And for that matter, “all time is affecting all time, all the time”. That was what Cooper experienced in the Tesseract in the movie Interstellar. In the Tesseract, he was able to watch everything in Murph’s bedroom, from the beginning of the universe till the end of time. He was able to go back and forth and create subtle changes in the fabric of space to communicate to Murph. However, no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to communicate in a way that was understandable to her. To her, he was but a ghost in the bedroom.
In the same way, God is in a dimension that is completely different from ours. In a previous post, I wrote that God appears in two forms — 1) a physical appearance (in the form of Christ) and 2) in the form of a transcendent conscious entity. Let’s not look at Christ for the moment and zoom into the transcendent conscious entity. God experiences all times all at once. Because of that, everything happens in a sort of causality loop where what happens in the future affects what happens in the past, and vice versa.
Unlike Him, we experience time in a linear manner. We call this the arrow of time. We are trapped by the very notion of time, unable to advance faster than it nor are we able to go backwards, against it. We can however, transcend it by recording snippets of memories through different means (ie: books, journals, photographs, videos, audio recording, etc). We are able to relive the past even though we have advanced through time. We call this atemporality. We transcend time to experience something that happened in another time frame. Through atemporal access to incidences in other timeframes, we also experience emotions associated with it.
Atemporality does not only apply to past memories. Atemporality may also apply to future events. Say for example, a prophecy of a future disaster can invoke fear and hence, cause us to make necessary arrangements to tide through the perceived disaster. In the Old Testament, the prophecy of a coming Messiah will invoke reverence, awe, and hope for the people of Israel. Hence, it kept the Israelites focused on God and on the hope of a coming “kingdom”. In other words, emotions is the one thing that transcends spatial dimensions of space and time. This was why Paul wrote, “for now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:12-13, NIV). It was his faith that connected with God. It was the hope he placed in the knowledge of a future promise of God that got him to continue doing what he was doing. It was his love of God and his love for God that held his entire being together.
We wouldn’t have memories or hope of an incident or someone if we have not taken into heart what it meant to us. The sacrifice of Christ would mean nothing to us if we have not experienced the immense love that comes alongside it. This was why Murph was compelled to return to the watch that Cooper gave her. It was an artefact of Cooper’s love for her. It was something that helps her connect with Cooper.
Now, we can never be able to experience something if we do not know about it. Murph will not be able to love Cooper in such a profound way if not for her experience of his love towards her. No one can experience the magnitude of love unless they are aware of that such a love exist. Hence, it is the job of the Christian to share the love of God in a way we experienced. In Paul’s words, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” (Romans 10:14-15, NIV).
The question therefore, is whether or not have we experienced God in a deep way that allows us to communicate with Him regardless of situation? Have we experienced Him talking to us? Him shaping our lives? Him journeying with us? Him revealing Himself to us? Have we meditated on what the sacrifice of Christ on the cross meant to us? Have we meditated on what He did at the last supper? Do we “do these in remembrance of Me” (Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:18-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-25)?
No matter how much God loves us, if we do not reciprocate our love towards Him, we will not be able to receive His message, let alone communicate with Him.
No matter how much God loves us, if we do not reciprocate our love towards Him, we will not be able to receive His message, let alone communicate with Him. However, it is only through our love for God that gives God the confidence to communicate in a way that will be able reach us. Hence, on our part, we are to wait upon Him to speak to us through the actions He had done on earth, through the words He had written down for us in scriptures, and through the daily meditation of His words. When we are sensitive to what He is doing in our lives, when His promises speaks to us at our lowest point in life, when the Holy Spirit shows Himself and journey with us through our darkest times, we are to savour the moment and form a holographic memory of all that happened. Savour the moment; all the words that was said, all the things that happened, all the peace that was felt, all the people that you met, all the details that you experience.
Having stored these memories in your head, we are to return to them, just as how Christ called His disciples to return to Jerusalem after His ascension. Return to the place where the Saviour was pierced. Return to the place where it hurts the most. Return to the place where the Saviour meets you. Return to the place where you journeyed with the Saviour. There, at the lowest point of your encounter, the Saviour will overwhelm you by causing His power to descend upon you. There, at your deepest meditation, the Saviour will shake the very fabric of spatial dimension and communicate with you. There, at your lowest, the Saviour will show His love to you.
What does the word “science” mean to you? (in particular here?) What does it take for something to qualify as “scientific”?
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