Eternal Matters

These past few months I have really enjoyed reading and reflecting on the writings of men and women of God from ages past. These tiny connections to the “saints of old” have served to inspire my own devotion to God. Recently I ran across this adaptation of words written by Alcuin (c. 735-804) and decided to share them with you:

Eternal Light, shine in my heart;

Eternal hope, lift up my eyes;

Eternal power, be my support;

Eternal wisdom, make me wise;

Eternal life, raise me from death;

Eternal brightness, help me see;

Eternal Spirit, give me breath;

Eternal Savior, come to me.

Until by Your mostly costly grace,

Invited by your holy word,

At last I come before Your face to know You,

My eternal God.

Eternal light, shine in my heart;

Eternal hope, lift up my eyes;

Eternal power, be my support;

Eternal Savior, come to me. Amen.

These words inspired me to write a prayer of my own:

Oh, eternal One, to You I call. You, who have no beginning and no end. You exist before time ever came to be, and your eternal nature has no end point. You cannot cease to be! You are forever and ever. I worship you on this glad day—O great God whose habitation and home is all of eternity. Your nature and person cannot be measured, or bound or counted or quantified. You are limitless in your attributes and your power is inexhaustible. Time will never define nor confine You, the Ageless One. No one can say, ”There is no space available!” You cannot be contained.

Yet, the Eternal One looks upon me. Yes, He invites me to know Him. The One without time—without space, invades my tiny world fixed by categories of time and space and limitation. He bursts upon my thought world and my heart world with His all-sufficient, all supreme, self-giving grace. He set the insatiable longing for eternity in my heart. He invites me to the great exchange: the here and now for the there and then. Come Eternal One and make Your habitation in me! Amen.

Now I'm going to go out today and live like eternity matters!

S t r e t c h e d