Time is a fixed parameter of human existence. We experience life within its boundaries just as we move within the axes of space in a body made of matter. While we Christians affirm the goodness of this world and cannot rightly imagine any other, we also believe that God exists beyond these limits. Someday we will live with Him in His reality. Our bodies will be transformed by the Resurrection, and our minds as well. No longer will we perceive time as a single moment moving relentlessly forward. Rather, we will see from the perspective of eternity. C.S. Lewis likens the coming change to stepping out of a flat painting into three-dimensional space.
It is the linear movement of time, I think, which makes memories feel ethereal. We can never re-experience any moment of our past in the same way that we can return to a place. We may recall many events. We may even have unbidden flashbacks, but our brains are simply incapable of recording all that happens to us, within us and around us. We lose context. We forget details. And our memories are colored, perhaps indexed, by emotions which change or fade over time. Even vivid memories are limited by incomplete perception. In this life, we cannot view events from another person’s perspective. We cannot see all the ways in which one action impacts or precipitates another. Such knowledge is hidden from our eyes for now, and I am thankful. But someday, in the safety of our Father’s presence, we will discover that the simple lines we traced here on earth have taken on depth and width in heaven. Ephemeral memories will be revealed as substantive history. Those who hope in God will discover that they have been living eternal life all along.
We know this is true in the history of salvation. Jesus reminds us that His Father is “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” and He is “not the God of the dead, but of the living.” The patriarchs, apparently, are quite alive though the world awaits the general resurrection. They are present to God; thus, their stories are living and active. The impact of their lives continues to unfold as their memory is passed from one generation to the next. The Spirit breathes on their witness, enlightening minds and transforming hearts.
Scripture informs us that God keeps records in heaven. Every act of kindness done to God or His people is remembered. But it is not only the works of men which are inscribed in the annals of heaven. God treasures the memories of His own work! His own Word is ever before Him. It is witnessed by thousands upon thousands of angels. And if the witness of men can be imbued with such grace that they are remembered forever, how much more certain and irresistible is God’s memory of His own promises!
In the most holy place of heaven God has placed a memory box – the ark of His covenant with Israel. The ark contains material evidence of God’s wonders in the Exodus - miracles which accompanied Israel’s deliverance. John the Beloved saw the ark revealed the twenty-four elders exclaimed, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ!” I cannot imagine the joy John must have felt as a Jew in that moment for Israel had lost the ark given to her as a sign of God’s Election. At some point in her past, the nation had grown inattentive and unbelieving. The memory of God’s wonders toward their fathers cooled. The majority of the Israelites did not love the tablets of the law, the jar of manna and Aaron’s budding rod the way God did. Instead, Israel bowed to other gods time and again. Eventually, God allowed the Temple to be sacked, but He never let go of His promise. When the ark was no longer treated with reverence on earth, He ensured its safety in heaven.
Scripture does not tell us exactly what happened to the ark, or how it came to be in heaven. We simply know that John saw it in “God’s temple in heaven” when the twenty-four elders sang Christ’s coronation hymn. The timing was, of course, no coincidence. God’s covenant with Israel was always meant to bring light to the nations. Jesus’ rule over all the earth was always he intended end of the covenant. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law, and the Bread come down from heaven, and the Resurrection of the dead. Without the witness of the ark, Christ’s reign could not be recognized in its rightful glory. Memory is important to God!
Recently, the Holy Spirit has been messing with some of my memories, lifting the veil of eternity just a peak. I find ordinary scenes from my own life coming to mind with a wholeness I find hard to describe. I recall a time when I was tempted to lie but chose to tell the truth; or a moment when a friend wrapped my fearful frame in a warm embrace. I see myself watching a rainbow with my husband or exploring a creek with my children, and these moments which once seemed faint and inconsequential now feel solid and immovable. It is as if I can step out of the flow of time and explore the events in three dimensions. Speaking metaphorically, I can move around them and touch them, viewing them from different angles. The Spirit shows me these memories are held in the Father’s heart, and therefore they are eternal.
Before the Throne, in the presence of the ark, the twenty-four elders rejoice in an eternal hymn. They sing “the time has come for the One Who was and Who is and Who is to come to judge the earth!” Judgment is based upon memory, and only God remembers accurately. Only He can weigh the actions of our lives. But when we are judged, we will see as He sees. We will know the truth of our lives. We will see the eternal ramifications of our actions. Perhaps this is why Jesus would dare to share His throne with His people. Once we have passed through the judgment of our King, no memory will be ethereal. Each deed of history will be solid – yielding itself to examination. And each memory washed in the Blood of Christ and in the Father’s love, even those that were painful on earth, will continue to unfold in glory, like the complicated stories of the patriarchs. The God of covenant is a Father who holds fast the memories of His children.