Sixteen years of marriage today! We were married on 8/8/8. We chose this date because in so many ways it symbolizes our faith in God. This number, 8, is both a symbol of new beginnings and of endless love. [fn]In the Bible the number 8 is often associated with new beginnings. For example, 8 people went into Noah’s Ark (Genesis 6). Also, newborn boys were circumcised on the eighth day (Leviticus 12:3). [/fn] Our wedding ceremony, which my wife and I wrote, was replete with references, both subtle and obvious. Each anniversary we watch our wedding and get a chuckle when the officiant gets to the line, “To infinite and beyond.” We Americans are very familiar with Buzz Lightyear’s words but our Belizean officiant just said it as though it was an everyday phrase. Comic gold! 

Is There a Better Symbol?

As I sat in prayer and ponder this morning I realized that the infinity symbol is actually not the best symbol for eternity! Look at it and see if you can guess why I came to that conclusion. Before I get there, let’s take a look at the symbol in historical use.

In ancient times contracts, more accurately, “covenants”, were quite literally struck using the figure eight pattern that we know as the eternity symbol. An animal was killed and separated into two haves, and the contractees would take turns walking in a figure-eight pattern between the two halves of the animal. In doing so they were witnessing: “If I break the agreement of this covenant, let what was done to this animal be done to me.” In other words, “Till death do us part.” 

We find a beautiful picture of this type of covenant being struck by God and Abram in Genesis 15. The beauty is that instead of both Abram and God walking through the pieces, God puts Abram to sleep. God then passes through the pieces of the animal alone! Why? God is saying, “I will be the one who will honor my word. I will see to it that the promises that I have made will come true. Abe, you just rest in my grace. I’ve got you…and not just you, all of your posterity.” 

Did you know Jesus has done the same thing for you and me?! Jesus died on a tree, a cross, for you and me. He became the lamb that was struck and broken for our sins. You can choose to rest, like Abe, in that reality. You can choose to identify with Christ’s death and resurrection and in so doing be sealed with and for eternal life. 

The New Eternity Symbol

“The Teacher” (most likely King Solomon) in Ecclesiastes pens a book full of dark tidings of life on Earth. One of his most famous sayings in the book is, “There is nothing new under the sun.” In another post, I refute the folly of this statement. However, in defense of Solomon (the smartest man who ever lived), he was living before the Cross. He couldn’t help but see life in shades and shadows. Seeing life as it actually is will turn anyone into a nihilist. Without the cross of Christ, life is a monotonous, meaningless repetition in which we are tossed to and fro from flittering hope to flittering hope. A cycle of doom! Like the infinity symbol, it just circles back on itself! Nothing new indeed. But that’s a mockery of eternity and that is life without the hope of the cross.

Many ancient cultures shed light on the inherent death of this symbol by showing the symbol as a snake

eating its tail. The snake eating its tail should also remind you of the serpent in the Garden of Eden and how his promise of “secret knowledge” led to a perpetual state of decay and spiritual death for Adam and Eve, for the whole world, and for you and me (Genesis 3). After choosing their way above God’s way, Adam and Eve were graciously kicked out of the Garden of Eden. God did this so that they would not eat from the Tree of Life and be permanently and eternally stuck in an infinite loop of death. Yet that is where so many of us live! 

Waking Up The Walking Dead

Are you a zombie? Do you keep circling the same mountains of doom? Why do you always run out of money? Why do you always date the wrong guy? Why do you always yell at your kids? Why do you and your mom always get into arguments? You want to do the right thing! You want to get better! So surely it’s not you. It must be them! You’re right, it’s not just you. But it is all up to you! You can choose to keep circling that mountain of doom in an infinity loop or you can choose to STOP. 

That’s the first step. The first step is to stop right in your tracks. Right now, just stop circling. Pause and assess this mountain you keep circling. Whether it’s a sin that has a hold of you or it’s something you need to do, pause and think about it. 

Now when I say, “Think about it,” I don’t actually mean that I want you to “reason” things out. Reasoning is what got us into this mess in the first place. Reasoning is what Eve tried to do with the serpent and what Adam and Eve tried to use on God. (Why didn’t they just say, “I’m sorry”?) What did Jesus do when Satan tried to reason with Him in the desert? Did Jesus use reasoning? No! Jesus used the Word of God. He used the Bible. Jesus didn’t think about it with His brain He just spoke the truth about reality in the way that God had revealed reality to be in the Bible. No reasoning was needed. Jesus said, “It is written… It is written…It is written.” (Matthew 4) 

That’s what you need to do to get out of your infinity loop of doom. You need to know what reality is. The reality is, God loves you (John 3:16). The reality is, God is good (James 1:17). The reality is, God wants you to prosper (Jeremiah 29:11). The reality is, God has good plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11)! These are the things you need to start speaking to that mountain of doom. Stop where you are. Stop right in the midst of your time warp and begin to speak life into your situation. Here are some helpful Scriptures to begin to speak daily into your situation. Daily? Yes, daily! Every day should begin with a slice of infinity.

A Daily Slice of Infinity – Eating the Words of the Bible 

When you sleep you go into a place that feels eternal until you wake up. It doesn’t feel like there are any boundaries when you are in the dream realms. Right upon waking it feels far easier to step into the infinite realms of the spiritual. This is the ideal time to have a slice of infinity. To eat from the Master’s table. To have communion with God. You must have Constant Contact with the Creator to know what God says and thinks about you. Just like Max Lucado’s book, You Are Special, you have to let God remind you that the labels that people and circumstances try to put on you are NOT YOU. Who are you?

You are a child of the most high God! The blood of The King of kings runs within your veins. You have been inoculated against death. You have eternal life and the eternality of that life means that it stretches from beyond physical death into your physical life here on earth. Has Jesus saved you and set you free? Yes! Though you may die physically one day, you WILL live eternally. If you will live eternally then you have access to that eternal life because by definition it stretches back into the very present time that now is. The question then becomes, are you living out of that eternal life, with that eternal perspective or are you still dining on the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and reasoning?

There were two trees in the Garden of Eden. One representing access to God’s life and one representing access to undisciplined freedom. Now the freedom part, that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?! You mean I can gain knowledge and reasoning skills that will free me to do…well pretty much anything I set my mind to?! Caution dear traveler. Caution. That’s the same path The Satan took. 

The Satan’s Song

When I was young I was very impressionable, as are the young, but that’s not always a bad thing. Some people were singing the famous song by Frank Sinatra, “I Did It My Way.” It was catchy and they were enthusiastic and I started to sing along. My Dad then turned to me and cautioned me. “Careful son, that’s Satan’s song.” To this day, every time I hear that song I remember that lesson. “I did it my way” is the zeitgeist of our times, but it’s an ancient tune. Its words are laced with the sticky juices of the Tree of Knowledge. The sweet siren’s call speaks of freedoms forever more but once partaken of proves to be a sticky, muck and mire of fetters, chaining you to base passions. Ironically, this “tree of knowledge” reasons one into a place of imbecility and infancy in which life becomes all about meeting one’s own needs and desires, even at the expense of other’s. But don’t forget the other tree!

The Other Tree

The Tree of Life was God’s very essence, made fruit! We’re talking transubstantiation here! God was not the tree but His essence and presence were in the tree. The tree was possibly His throne and out of it flowed the fruits of abundant life. On the cross, through that tree, God reestablished His Tree of Life on Earth and once again granted access to the Tree of Life. Yes, we have all eaten of the Tree of Knowledge and its sweet sticky juices are bitter in our veins, leading to infinite loops of brokenness. However, there’s another tree! And it’s the correct symbol of infinity. It’s not a snake eating its tail but an infinite plus sign of goodness. It’s the cross. The cross is the only way. It’s the only tree that leads to eternal life, not merely eternal existence. And guess what? There’s this little thing that all the Church does that brings this whole picture full circle. It’s called Communion. 

Eating God

In our church Communion is one of our chief “ordinances”. Some Christian communities call these sacraments, some call them rites. They are practices that are central to our faith because they are infused with meaning. The level of “infusion” is debated amongst ourselves. For example, I referenced transubstantiation, which is a belief held by the Catholic stream of Christianity. Transubstantiation is the belief that during the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper / Communion), the bread literally becomes the body of Christ and the wine literally becomes the blood of Christ. I have seen transubstantiation explained pedantically, but I have also seen it explained in a way that emphasizes the mystery of the sacrament. I prefer the latter.

As mysterious as it was for Adam and Eve to eat a fruit from the Tree of Life that would give them eternal life, so too is it mysterious for Christians to eat the fruit of Christ’s sacrifice and gain eternal life! But this is the full picture of going from Eden to Golgotha! Life through death. Eternal life through the cross. Eternal life for the present and the future by feasting with and on the Creator of all that is, was or ever will be. This is why Jesus says, “You cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” I know, I know. “Feasting on God,” just sounds weird.  This is exactly why so many responded like they did when Jesus suggested it, in John 6:66: “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”

Just as the Creator set before Adam and Eve the choice of two trees, so today the same choice is set before us. We can choose the Tree of Life or the Tree of Death. Even once you choose the Tree of Life, each day you will have an opportunity to live off of the fruit of one tree or the other. Will you choose to live off the eternal fruit of goodness offered by a loving God or will you choose to feast off your famished reason? What does your life look like now? Is it marked by abundance and the leaves of the freedom tree or are you steady circling those same old mountains?