Seeing Eternity in the Now

I watch and enjoy this picture I once took of the sunset.
I pointed my camera and clicked it and out came this awesome photo.
It could very well be the picture of another glorious morning breaking.
Either way, it fills me with joy, gratitude and great humility before such beauty.

Science will tell me that it is all a matter of the synapses
that the photons hitting my eyes are
being relayed to the neurons in my brain.
All perception is but the electro-chemical reaction of my cells to outside stimuli.

But I do not experience reality at that level.
I am not even aware of the photons and the neurons.
But I am enthralled and simply dumbstruck
by this unspeakable beauty before me.

A doctor can tell me what is happening in my brain and in my mind.
But he can never know the memories I lovingly store in there.
Nor can he understand all the hopes and aspirations I imagine
Nor the dreams I conjure and often make happen.

A doctor can count the beatings of my heart and know if it is healthy.
But he can never know for whom or for what my heart beats,
Why it skips an extra beat when I see a person I love and cherish
Nor why it palpitates in anger and resentment when I think of certain people.

There is a scientific explanation to everything that exists.
In the final analysis, we are all made of the same sub-atomic particles.
And yet no two persons are ever the same
And each of their story is as unique as one can be.

I look at the grandeur and magnificence around me.
I love the goodness and the love in people I see.
I know that I am part of a picture or a story that is bigger than me.
I am slowly but surely moving into eternity.

I do not need to know the science part of life to see that it is magical.
I do not need to see the stars to know I came from stardust.
I do not need to put my finger into His side
To know that my God is here and alive.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
~ Psalm 118

Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
John 20:19-31