Season 5 of THE CROWN documents the day in 1992 when a thousand-year-old castle caught fire. That’s right, Windsor Palace was built 1,000 years ago by Norman the Conqueror—300 years before Chaucer, 500 years before Shakespeare! The blaze roared through the building for 15 hours, destroying priceless pieces of art and furniture. Five years later, at a cost of 37 million pounds, the damaged areas were reopened.
Can you imagine a thousand-year-old building? As Americans, it’s hard to imagine a thousand-year-old ANYTHING. Mature redwood trees are about the only things on the continent that have been around for a thousand years. A thousand years is what, fourteen lifetimes? When my grandfather died at 87, he had lived during 41% of the history of the United States—that is, he had been alive during nearly half of the time we had been a nation. The United States is SO YOUNG! By contrast, Britain will celebrate a millennium in forty years—that is an incomprehensible span of time.
But God can comprehend it.
“To the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day” 2 Peter 3:8.
God is outside of time. We are like the man at the Thanksgiving Day parade. We can see the float ahead of us and the float behind us. But God can look down on the entire parade!
Peter’s point is: don’t assume Jesus is not coming back simply because He has not come back YET.
God is merciful. When He looks on people and decides to ‘give them one more day,’ maybe that day becomes a thousand years. Some will go on sinning, others will win souls, and suddenly there will be a trumpet blast and Jesus will return to judge the quick and the dead.
“Behold NOW is the acceptable time. TODAY is the day of salvation” 2 Corinthians 6:2.
Come to Christ. Repent and find grace before time runs out. Because time WILL run out.
ΑΩ
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