Time into Love into Time

I have been thinking about time. The what of it. Our perception of it, dictated by the clock. The import of day and night. I have not got very far with any compelling insight into the what of time.

Then, today (at work, on the toilet - hah!), gazing at my lovely auto-winding Timex, I thought about why, from a faith perspective; or, why (given that all is from God) did God create time? It struck me that if there were no time as we know it - or experience it - we simply would be. We would exist, but we would not dwell. We would experience one moment in one world. We would not experience development or succession.

We would not have choice. Will would be useless. Will, as we understand it, would not exist, except perhaps insofar as we might will being - but a being outside of time.

Without time, we would not have choice. In time, we can choose. What to do and say. We experience change. Choices, growth, love. Without time, we might love, but we could not choose to say we love. In short, we could not experience the agency of love. We could not, for instance, love one another. And we could not love God.

John tells us that God is love. That is a quote. In all of scripture, this is one of the most compelling statements. It is a brilliant observation and incite; or declaration, or imparting of the Holy Spirit. It is often read I think as an indication of God's nature as a merciful, and of course loving, God. But for the purposes of this discussion, I view it as a statement of agency and the nature of time.

I believe that love is the essential force in the universe. I choose the adjective "essential" with this caveat, that it is the best I can do under the present circumstances. Better than underlying, or basic, or primordial, or ultimate. Love is both basic and ultimate perhaps - essential. Perfect and absolute - as again (back to John) we are told of the perfect love of God. The perfect love is the perfect force. The perfect force (the one force) is God.

But being schooled to an extent in philosophy I ask myself, why? Why does God love and why does he, well, enjoy or prefer or demand our love...except to say that love is "essential" or is the nature of God? This word love, this thing we call "love." How much do we really know about it? I hear the husband, father, poet of myself say, "I know it when I feel it." Well, we know what that rejoinder is worth to a serious discussion like this one!

I do know that the end of faith is love as often is the beginning. People are often confused about the Holy Spirit, the person of it - the nature of divine love as not merely a force, but a consubstantial "person" (I think I have that right). Sadly, this blog posting of a middle-aged American on February 12, 2013 will not advance the subject of the what of the Holy Spirit. It will not go further (a touch of the cap to Kierkegaard) than St. Augustine. Or I should say, happily, this posting will fall securely in the category of those compositions that know enough to wonder and understand, I hope, that this is the substance, the what of knowing on that subject.

But I am not abandoning or trailing off - not exactly. What is time. A gift. Why. Because time is love in action, and God is love. In God's law, his demand that we love, we are called to be the children of God, and to inherit his kingdom. In time we are presented with a "world" of options and opportunities. among those is love of God and love of each other. Among. Not exclusively. But definitely among, even preeminently, even to the abandonment of self, this mechanism, this fleshly proposition. If we did not experience love, we would not know God, and we would not be fit inheritors of his kingdom. A kingdom created, impelled, by love.

As we are in love we are in God.

That is all I have, even as I know it fails to fully occupy or inhabit its terms. I do not know if there is time in heaven. I have no idea how to approach that question or, more decidedly, whether it is of any importance whatsoever for me to even pose it. How might I advance my studies in time? I sit here (in time) and know enough to know that I have no idea what is going on. And when I say (or write) that, I feel terrific gratitude, perhaps for seeing myself or my intelligence in relief against the universe. I am often tired or occupied with this or that, then feel refreshed enough at least to praise. Perhaps just in time.