For Ever (and Ever)

How long is forever?

Yesterday, I waited in the checkout line at the grocery store. I waited forever. I mean, for…ever. I thought my frozen vegetables would melt. I even considered taking my cart over to the self-checkout lines.

You’ve probably experienced this type of forever. Waiting for a microwave to chime. Stopped in traffic. Anticipating the arrival of a package. We often say these things take forever. Not literally, of course. We’re using the word in a figurative manner. This specific figure of speech is called hyperbole, an exaggeration.

When acknowledging that kingdom, power, and glory belong to God forever, sometimes I act as if I’m simply making a hyperbolic expression. I say God’s kingdom is forever (and ever). I have good intentions to honor God as King of my life. But in reality, my submission to God’s rule sometimes fizzles as quickly as my patience in the checkout line. I acknowledge God’s power. I stand in awe, for a few minutes anyway, then the spiritual feeling ebbs.

Forever. Sometimes it’s such a short time.

But although this is often my reality, it isn’t really what I mean by forever when I acknowledge God. Still, the concept of forever has variable boundaries.

Forever, might apply to the years of my lifetime. All of the time since the day of my birth to the day of my death comprise the forever of my fleshly existence. When I acknowledge God’s kingdom, power, and glory, this forever seems inadequate, but it’s all I will personally know until I, myself, knock on the heavenly gates.

From my parents and grandparents, I’ve heard stories of a longer forever, the one that began before my birth. Through the writings of historians and archeologists, I have learned about the forever of human civilization, although the farther the dates get from the ones during which I live, the fuzzier the details become and the trustworthiness of speculation begins to dim.

Earth’s forever has been estimated by scientists at some four billion years. That’s an unimaginably long time compared with the decades of a human life, but only a fraction of the universe’s forever. Best estimates for that come close to 14 billion years.

Yet God’s forever seems to be something else entirely. Something beyond years. Something beyond time itself. Eternity.

What is eternity? How does timelessness work? I don’t have answers to these questions, but my prayer acknowledges that even for this amount of forever, God is the one who reigns, who holds power, and who is worthy to receive praise.

For all ages: past, present, and future. For before all ages and beyond the end of all ages, for all of timeless eternity: Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Forever. And ever.