A light year is 6 trillion miles; this is the distance light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has a diameter of 100,000 light years, a thickness of 1,000 light years, and contains between 100-400 billion stars. The oldest known star in the Milky Way is said to be 13 billion years old. The universe is immensely large and, some say, possibly infinite in volume (I would argue only God is infinite). The region visible from Earth (the observable universe) is a sphere with a radius of about 46 billion light years (thus, a diameter of 92 billion light years). The most precise estimate scientists give for the age of universe is 13 billion years.
For the average person, understanding time and distance in terms of billions of miles and years essentially is impossible. Yet, we can observe two things from the above information. One, we understand, or try to understand, our universe in terms of distance. Two, we also attempt to comprehend the universe in terms of time. Now, distance is absolute. A mile is a mile and a kilometer is a kilometer (a km is .6 of a mile - a 10k race is 6 miles). If one was able to travel anywhere in the universe, distance would always be computed in terms of miles or kilometers (the universally preferred standard of measurement).
Time is another matter altogether. An earth day, 24 hours, is not the same as a day on Jupiter. A day is the amount of time it takes for a planet to spin around once. A day on Jupiter is much shorter than a day on Earth. The giant planet's day is only about ten hours long, less, than half as long as an Earth day. So, depending on where one might be in the Universe, time, in terms of days and years, would be on a different order than time on earth. While seconds, minutes and hours are constants, days and years are not unless we have a frame of reference for computing them. Hence, an earth year.
So, to speak of a light year as the distance light travels in one year is a highly relative concept. Ironically, we have no other way of computing the speed of light than to speak in terms of the distance light travels in one of our years. Regardless of the time, though, light does travel over distances and does so at an incredibly swift pace. Yet, days and years are relative to where you are; distance is not.
Time is an important concept for human beings. We order our lives on the basis of 24 hour days, 7-day weeks and 365-day years. We compute our ages in terms of earth years. We have no other frame of reference with which to do so. We are limited by time. We live at a certain pace, second by second, minute by minute, day by day and year by year. We are not able to leap ahead or go back. We are stuck in the moment. Our time limitation has many consequences. One is our inability to change the past; another is being unable to either see or determine the future.
For believers, though, time should be a little less consequential than for non-believers. Based on the teachings of Scripture, when one believes on the Lord Jesus, he is saved and will never perish. Time for followers of Jesus, then, should be viewed from an entirely different perspective. Salvation in Jesus means our essential being goes on living in eternity, even though our physical body dies. Indeed, as Christians, we believe we have already begun to experience eternal life, even while locked in time.
Paul spoke often of the meaningless of time for the followers of Jesus. He told the Corinthians, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Look at his treatment of time. The body is decaying: the erosive result of time. Any and all affliction is momentary: over time, our situations, conditions and circumstances change or come to an end. Day by day, though, we, in our inner being, are being made new. Thus, we are being set free from the restrictions of time.
That such a truth exists should determine our view of time. We should not orient ourselves to time (the things which are seen and passing away), but have an eternal perspective, perceiving what is unseen, and, thus, timeless and eternal. In one sense, we must deal with the consequences of time on a daily basis; we are wearing away. In another sense, though, we can respond to those time-induced “facts” by seeing them from God’s perspective: they are temporary. We are new everyday; we are, in our essential being, not bound any longer by time.
While we are still locked in time, God is not. He sees the beginning of all things, their progress and their conclusion as one reality. Since he is not bound by and locked in time, time has no meaning for God. If we can grasp this truth, we ourselves will be freed from the prison of time. Even though we must live in time, we are no longer bound by time. Even though we are growing older, weaker and more limited with each passing day, yet, deep within, we are being made new with each passing day.
God is both outside our Universe and inside of it. He is present among us, yet, unaffected by time. He is “I Am,” the Ever-Present-One. Through the Son, God came and lived among us. Through his Spirit, he has always been present in creation. He is free to move in and out of time. For God, the distance from outside our Universe, with its diameter of 92 billion light years, is not even a second. He is in heaven and among us all at once. He indeed is Lord of the Universe and all that exists within it and beyond it.
So, we can sing with David, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. . . . The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.” (Psalm 33.6, 11-14) He is in control and we are never outside his care.
