Time and Space

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My mind has been travelling across ages and times just lately. History, place, other worlds, imagination, reality, things ephemeral yet real. 

One of my mother’s oft-used phrases was ‘Time and space, time and space!’, spoken when the lack of both caused frustration in her busy life. Now that she’s in the next world, time and space are different – non-existent, even.

I’ve recently had a week’s holiday in Llwyn Celyn in Wales, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. This ‘medieval hall house’ was built originally in 1420 and has hardly changed since around 1690, though it was still inhabited until about 10 years ago. Then it was taken over by The Landmark Trust, which has restored it to how it would have been in 1690. Time and space became rather fluid for me there, gazing at the many honest repairs in woodwork, beams, doors, window frames, floors, stonework – pondering how human life has changed (or not) through the centuries. Early each morning, the only sounds were prolific birdsong and bleating sheep and lambs. The view from the front door was timeless – sweeping valleys and tall hills, bucolic in the early sunshine.

Through the evenings, I read The Little Prince to my 8- and 10-yr-old grandchildren. The little prince travelled through time and space, learning important things about people, and about what truly matters. ‘We can only truly see with the heart. What is important is invisible to the eyes.’ 

I’ve also been re-reading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials where the characters experience other worlds and different realities. (Has the author come across Swedenborg, I wonder?)

Soon it will be New Church Day.  This precious church (which truly matters) is outside of time and space, yet within it at the same time. The Lord has made use of both earth and heaven to spread His truths and His goodness to all who will hear Him.

‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ John 18:36

‘The Divine is present through all time independently of time.’ Divine Love & Wisdom 73

‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth … but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ Matthew 6:19-21

‘After this work was finished, the Lord called together His twelve disciples who followed Him in the world; and the next day He sent them all forth throughout the whole spiritual world … to preach the Gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns.’ True Christian Religion 791

Happy New Church Day!

About Dale Morris

Dale grew up in Bryn Athyn. She moved to England as a young bride with her British husband. They raised their four children in the Cotswold village where they’ve lived for over 40 years. Dale fulfilled her childhood ambition to be a wife and mother, and when she finally discovered what else she wanted to be ‘when she grew up’, she spent ten years as a freelance proofreader. In retirement, she enjoys being a grandma, being involved in her community, and helping the church in the UK.

4 thoughts on “Time and Space”

    1. Lori, for the best pictures of the house, google it! Llwyn Celyn Landmark Trust. I’ll send you photos of the grandchildren….

  2. Yes time and space are strange things. My wife went over to the spiritual world some 15 years ago. And I was for a while troubled with the thought that she perhaps got tired of waiting for me. But our minister comforted me with the simple truth that in the spiritual world there is no real time. And if there is no real time then she can’t wait. That helped me.
    Gustav

    1. Gustav, I appreciate your response. Isn’t it a comfort to know that time doesn’t really exist in the next world – at least not the same way it exists here? Your wife will be delighted to see you when you get there, and perhaps then for you all the interim time will disappear too.

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