Imagine...

I was on the train home from London last night after visiting a very good friend of mine and having coffee with her in a pretty swanky little cafe just off Baker Street. It was getting late and I was in one of the pondersome moods you tend to drift into when gazing out of the window of a train at night and all you can see is black and occasionally the reflection of a old, bald man trying to stay awake on the seat opposite you.

Anyway...

I was thinking about the fact that I could get from my house to London in just over an hour. Sounds quite simple and almost not worth the hassle of thinking about it. But then I wandered on along that thought line and realised that in this day in age, you can get pretty much anywhere in the world within 24hours. This would not have been possible in years gone past.

And then my mind skipped on a few beats [in true Old Man style] to all the 'progress' that has happened over my lifetime so far. Granted, i'm only 24, but already I imagine the conversations between me and my grandchildren...

"I remember the days when we only had 1 tv in each room. and even that only had 4 channels."

"I remember the days when you had to buy your train tickets from machines."

"I remember when planes had loud jet engines and a long runway to take off on."

"I remember when you actually had to steer a car."

"I remember the days when an iPod was a little coloured box you put in your pocket that had headphones to put in your ears, not like the microchips you kids have impanted into your heads"

Ok, so maybe my on train boredom had kicked in by that point.

But it's phenomenal how much technology and society have changed over human history and it's frightening to think how fast things will develop into the future. How things will change and what things will remain and what new things will be introduced.

Imagine then, if you will*, what it must be like for God. He was never created, and He will never die, and so He has been involved in every single second of history. He has inspired new discoveries, he had encouraged inventions and schemes. He has been hurt at cruelty and opression. He has laughed at the greatest comic heroes and cried at the most tragic losses. He has uplifted those who have been beaten down and toppled those who have raised themselves up by evil means.

He is interested in you. He wants a relationship with you. He wants to love you, to help you out, to hang out with you, to know what you like and don't like, to be there where you're hurting, to laugh at your jokes that aren't all that funny, to share what's on His mind with you.

All you have to do is say 'Hi'.

I arrived at my stop, and left the train.

(*Imagine. If you consider yourself an atheist then I encourage you, just for a few moments, to 'imagine', not believe or even accept necessarily, that there is an eternal supreme spiritual being who is in charge of everything.)