The Concept of Permanence & Time
in Relation to God's Attention
by Henry Velez; Editor

Psa 104:31 The glory of the LORD shall endure forever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.

Pro 27:24 For riches are not for ever: And doth the crown endure unto all generations?

As I walked by a large, four-story building today it suddenly dawned upon me just how temporary such a structure is. Normally when we think of a temporary structure we think of a tent or those portable storage units. But here I was standing next to literally hundreds of tons of welded steel, encased in concrete with miles of electrical wiring and a truckload of bolts holding it all together.. yet it was temporary. The day will come that not one pebble will lie upon another.

Isa 34:4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fade away, as the leaf fadeth from off the vine, and as a fading leaf from the fig-tree.

Even the sky that I see above me.. one day it will be folded up, like a scroll that is being prepared to be put away in a box. The day will come, whether I see that day or not, that this building and all other man-made skyscrapers down to the meekest four-cylinder economy car.. they will all be undone, made to nothing. As my friend and mentor always was fond of saying about his personal belongings, "It's all gonna burn someday anyway."

Jam 4:14 whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

2Pe 3:8 But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

All of history is only seemingly crawling along. In the eyes and experience of God.. it is more like merely a handful of days. For Him, "a thousand years is but as one day.." and yet He chooses to look in on the details of men's lives as though, "a day is as a thousand years".

I did some calculations I've been meaning for awhile to do on this. "..a day is as a thousand years" Without accounting for leap years, there are 8.76 million hours in a 1,000 year period. Meanwhile, there are 1,440 minutes per 24-hour day period. Have you ever watched your old home videos in slow-motion mode? I've edited many home movies to DVD and in the process watched many of my son’s early years in slow-motion video during the process. What you see are all the tiny nuances and moments, which at the time, went by at the speed of life. Water splashing through the air, eyes that look upward to you, kids as they toddle and fall to the grass.. all these minute details are so very observable when one minute is viewed over a three-minute period. (1/3 speed)

Getting back to my calculations; since with God a day is as a thousand years.. this means that He is able to observe every detail of our inward-thoughts and outward-actions at an incredibly detailed pace. How detailed? When dispersing the available 8.76 million hours of a thousand years and dividing it equally into the number of minutes in a 24-hour period.. it means that God is easily able to spend 253 Days:11 Hours:16 Minutes pouring over the details of every 60 seconds of our lives. (!)

In our first example, with home movies, the ratio was 3:1 (three minutes given to every one minute). In the example given from scripture.. the ratio is 15,204:1 Our lives are of great interest to God. As being Omniscient-Omnipotent-Omnipresent.., these things are no burden to Him. For Him to observe such detail is as natural as breathing is to us. Does God really take such an interest in every detail of our lives? This is what David declares to be so;

Psa 56:8 You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?

God’s attention and care towards us is such that He truly, "grieves with those who grieve". Our very tears He has seen fall in slow motion and caught them into a bottle of remembrance. Our griefs and sorrows are not moments discarded in a millisecond of eternity.. they are noted and remembered by the Creator of all things.

John speaks of all our deeds as being recorded in a book, to be examined at judgment;

Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.

So then, not only will all things of this world pass away, including the earth and heavens.. but there will remain a record of all that God has observed of us. What I see in all of this, as I passed by the seemingly 'permanent' four-story building this morning.. is that God is truly sovereign not only in that He 'owns' all that ever was or is, but that He has full authority to bring it to an end and judge it afterwards. There is not a single grain of sand along any ocean hidden from His sight. Nor is there any inclination of heart, mind or deed of any person which escapes His able scrutiny. God is the possessor and judge over all things. As Jesus so clearly stated;

Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.