Eternity: It's Not All That It's Cracked Up to Be

When the kids were little, we used to read them a book about the Berenstain Bears, the title of which was Too Much Birthday. The jist of the story, as I remember it, is that one of the bear cubs enjoyed his birthday so much that he wanted EVERY day to be his birthday. After all, there are presents, and games, and cake!

And so the parents obliged. The next day, they had another birthday party. And darn if the cake didn't still taste good--maybe not quite as good as the first day, but still good. And on the third day, with the third birthday party, some of the presents weren't quite as special, and the cake was even a little less tasty. Well, perhaps you see where this is going: by about the fifth day of this continuous revelry, the cub was ready to call it quits--he had, in essence, Too Much Birthday.

Hmm. There may be a lesson here. Many people claim to either want eternal life or believe that they will be "rewarded" with eternal life. With the Berenstain Bears in mind, be careful what you wish for!

It's very hard to get a mental handle on the concept of eternity, just as the concept of "infinity" boggles the mind. But it's important to try. If you have eternal life, that means that you will be "alive" in the year 3256, the year 32,256, and the year 32,556,668,994,331,440,227,749,225,057,939,641--and beyond! Now, what are you going to be doing for eternity? Are there elaborate buffets, or lots of board games, or endless re-runs of Gilligan's Island? (If there are buffets, I hope they have both pizza and potato salad.) What in the heck would one DO for eternity? And if there is nothing to do, and one is simply in a sort of "state," what would be the joy in being in that perpetual state for BILLIONS of years? Wouldn't it get kind of "old"?

Our lives are defined by limits and boundaries. If everything was infinite, it would cease to be meaningful. We cherish life for that very reason. And while it's perfectly "normal" to want to exist forever, forever is a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really long time.