The Eternal One

READ: PSALMS 90:1-4; 136:1; 2 PETER 3:8-9

We humans were made to be curious creatures. God made us to learn and to always be full of questions about Him and the world He made. One deep question we very quickly reach is: “Who or what made God? If every effect has a cause, what caused God to exist?”

The answer is, nobody made God; nothing caused God to exist. He didn’t come from anywhere—He just always was. Our minds are finite and limited, and there are some things we can’t fully understand as humans. It’s hard to wrap our minds around the fact that God is eternal, which means having no beginning and no end. God always existed and always will exist.

Perhaps the closest image we have is a circle. Where does it begin or end? Technically, nowhere. And that’s kind of like God. He is the Eternal One. He never had a beginning, and He has no ending. We think of our lives in minutes and days and weeks and years, but with God, it isn’t like that. Second Peter 3:8 says, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”

And because God has no beginning and no end, His love is like that too. We see God’s never-ending, unconditional love on display when Jesus, God the Son, willingly became human and died on the cross for us. But the Eternal One couldn’t be held by death. After three days in a tomb, Jesus rose from the grave, defeating sin and death once and for all so that we could live with Him—forever. No matter what, His love for us will never end. • A. W. Smith

• God’s eternal nature is a mystery to our brains. What are some other mysteries about God that you wonder about? Who are trusted people in your life you could talk with about these wonderful mysteries?

• How can God’s eternal, unchanging, unconditional love for us give us comfort in tough times?

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Psalm 90:2 (NIV)