How long does eternity last? The question makes Sunday school children giggle as they picture a queue that never ends. The Christian answer is more surprising: eternity isn’t a very long time, it’s something other than time. In the sixth century, the philosopher Boethius defined it as the complete and perfect possession of unending life, all at once. No yesterday, no tomorrow. Not easy to fit into an eternity emoji.
The Bible prefers images. In the Book of Revelation, Christ says: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.” Those two Greek letters, the first and last of the alphabet, are traced every year on the Easter candle, along with the current year, as if to say that our little calendar fits in the hand of the One who doesn’t count years. And in John’s Gospel, eternal life isn’t even postponed until later: it means knowing God, and it starts now.
The keyboard offers ♾️, which feels like a math class, and ⏳, which says the exact opposite. What we lack is a brighter sign: an Alpha and an Omega joined together, a circle of light, a door opening onto a sun 🌅 that never sets. Take all the time you need to draw it, then send it our way.
There’s no proposal yet!
This post is also available in: Français (French) Italiano (Italian) Español (Spanish) Português (Portuguese (Brazil))
Leave a Reply