The Hallway between Time and Eternity

I found myself sitting in Aunt Angie's kitchen. On every wall were snapshots of family and friends. The memories these pictures awoke in me made me feel as if those pictured were still with us.What brought me and many others to this place was the sad news that Aunt Angie's son, my cousin Ryan, had died suddenly. As we gathered together to grieve, to love and to remember it seemed as if time lost its hold on us and we had entered into a hallway between time and eternity.

In this hallway between time and eternity there is a silence and the rush and hurry of the outside world is muffled. Memories live again in this quiet place. Looking at the pictures, the years melt away. Here in the hallway tears flow freely but laughter is also heard.

This is not a place anyone would choose to be. The door to this hallway is grief. Going through this entrance strips away the world's hold on the soul. Here where tears flow freely the eyes of the spirit lose their blindness and eternity comes into view.

There is a truth that is revealed by grief. It is here that we recognize that what is temporal is also temporary like the pictures on the wall. We see ourselves and those we've loved frozen in time. In Aunt Angie's kitchen I saw the picture of her husband, my Uncle Chuck. It was just the way I remembered him. I could almost see him tapping his foot to keep time with the music. In the picture his smile is broad. The music that I heard from the accordion he played comes from a place in my heart where this memory lives.

Caught between time and eternity we become aware that we are not alone. Here where time is silenced our spirits are free to hear the voice of the Ancient of Days. As C. S. Lewis says, "His intervening presence is terribly startling to discover. It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone." What is the message that is given? We find it in the words Jesus spoke during his final time on earth. "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world." (John 17:24) Here in the hallway we get a glimpse of eternity.