Always

One word I happen to very much like is the word forever. Some time during the middle of last year Kerryn gave me a whole page of verses which she picked and wrote out in her imaculate handwritting just for me. We had this strange bounce encouragement off eachother thing happening all year despite being polar opposites. I keep the page in my Bible and refer to it more often than I'll admit. I'm not sure why she picked the verses she did, but one of the verses is from the end of Psalm 48. "For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end." (v.14) Why is forever important? Constancy is something I value tremendously. I've been through the wars of grappling with change, hating it and loving it but there is something about someone/something that stays perfectly steadfast that surpasses the difficulties and benefits of change. That rock. That commitment. That forever. Biblically forever comes up quite a bit and very often to do with covenants and best of all to do with God. "This is our God forever and ever" Is such a beautiful statement. "'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'" Exodus 32:13 "He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac." Ps. 105:7-9 and again in 1 Cor 16:15 Psalm 89 is particulary noteworthy "but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness" Forever in this context speaks of faithfulness, of promise, of greatness and then it concludes with the very suitable, Praise be to the Lord forever. I really like how it ties the forever quality with God as it's so loaded and so worthy. David Crowder has this song: "Forever etc." which speaks of 'being God's' for eternity. Or so it implies. In a way it's very much about us totally relinquishing who we are to God. We are not 'forever' if forever extends both ends of the time spectrum. We are however made in his image and we do get to experience this forever if we are his. I just think it's remarkable. Forever is such an empty word if used from without the God context.