Time Thoughts

My current novel, or series as it turns out, uses time as a central theme. It's almost to the point that time is a character in itself. No, time isn't going to get up and start speaking, though for anyone over the age of forty, it often seems that way.

I guess this has a spark in the back of my cobbled brain for many years, ever since my college physics classes. I loved physics so much that I considered making it my major instead of engineering (my physics teacher at Lawrence Tech University asked me one day, "Are you a physics major or only an engineer?").

One of my favorite topics was Einstein's Theory of Relativity. That's the one that states "Relatives visiting on holidays appear to stay for days when only a few hours has passed." Okay, just kidding.

Most of us are familiar with the simple version of relativity. If you're on a train going 100mph and another train passes you at 110mph, from your viewpoint, the other train is moving very slowly, even though it is passing yours. That's the basic principle.

Some of you may even know that the theory applies to traveling near light speed. If you hop into a spaceship and travel near light speed, you'll come back in a few hours to find that twenty years has passed on Earth. Your twin brother will be an old man. Pretty cool, huh?

The movie Genesis Code does an excellent job of explaining how this applies to the book of Genesis and the seven days of creation. The movie may or may not have it right. I have my opinion as I'm sure every other Christian does. But the concept is staggering.

I think all Christians will agree that time through the eyes of God is completely different than the way we view it. To us, it is uni-directional constant. There must be a beginning and an end. We measure it in known constants like years, days, minutes, and seconds. But what if, in the eyes of God and other residents of Heaven, time were not so clear cut? What if it were more like an idea, or an emotion, something that really has no units of measurement?

Or, as is explained by Einstien and  Genesis Code, the units of measurement aren't constant? Five minutes today may have been shorter than five minutes near the start of creation, or when, as stated earlier, we travel near the speed of light.

The implications for the theologian are interesting. For the novelist, they open up a whole new world. Literally. And that's what I hope to accomplish with my new venture into the world of fiction. I'd like to get people thinking about time, how we view it, and how God views it.

It may change the way we think about everything.