God, the Original Time Traveler

Lewis tells us about God being outside of time (outatime) and how that affects free will today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

And it brings to mind the beginning of Tolkien's amazing, convoluted little book called The Silmarillion. In the beginning of that book, God is a great composer of beautiful music. He has a multitude of singers who are all contributing to the great song. One of them, a little full of himself, tries to disrupt the song and bring attention to himself. But every time he does so, the great composer demonstrates his amazing skill by working the selfish singer's music into the greater symphony.

The way this relates is that the singers are all exercising their own will. They're singing their songs the way they desire to. And the Great Composer sees and hears all of them at once, doing their own free will thing, and also works all of it into a beautiful song.

So it is with God. He allows all of us to make our own choices, good or bad. And He works all of those decisions together for good. No matter how hard someone might try to disrupt His song, He is so completely above all of our skill and ability that He easily works all of it for good. He makes all things well, and all things well, and all manner of things well.

He is outside of time and space, weaving all of our experiences which we perceive one at a time, in sequential order, into a great song that in REALITY (the way God experiences it) is happening all at once in the great Now.

Hard for the human mind to grasp. But it allows us to see how the answer to many of our questions is not A or B. It's something above A and B which often encompasses both. The answer, as my beloved friend Amy would say, is yes and no.

God, thank You for Your ultimate reality, which we are privileged to participate in.