A glimpse of eternity

A break from Star Child.

So you bring a friend to church.  As you walk into the chapel, you greet people, you introduce your friend, and then find that pew you always sit on.  As you sit down you look up at the song board for the meeting.  You remind yourself of each song, and then you see it.  284.  284?  What hymn is that?  You don't remember singing it.  So you sit down, with your friend, and while waiting for the meeting to begin, you look up the hymn.   You have worked hard to get your friend to come, and then you see it:  "If You Could Hie unto Kolob"

For some reason, this masterpiece by W.W.Phelps is seldom sung.  It pushes the mind to look past the finite, to try to grasp what lies beyond.  Most people of faith believe in life after death, or some sort of eternity.  It was rearranged for the 1985 hymnbook, and the result was a hymn whose lyrics match the tune.  So here it is;

1. If you could hie to Kolob, in the twinkling of an eye,
And then continue onward, with that same speed to fly,
Do you think that you could ever, through all eternity,
Find out the generation where Gods began to be?

2. Or see the grand beginning, where space did not extend?
Or view the last creation, where Gods and matter end?
Methinks the Spirit whispers, "No man has found 'pure space,'

   Nor seen the outside curtains, where nothing has a place."

3. The works of God continue, and worlds and lives abound;
Improvement and progression have one eternal round.
There is no end to matter; There is no end to space;
There is no end to spirit; There is no end to race.

4. There is no end to virtue; There is no end to might;
There is no end to wisdom; There is no end to light.
There is no end to union; There is no end to youth;
There is no end to priesthood; There is no end to truth.

5. There is no end to glory; There is no end to love;
There is no end to being; There is no death above.
There is no end to glory; There is no end to love;
There is no end to being; There is no death above.

For those that are not familiar, the term Kolob is a name for the place God resides.

The problem is that we try to view eternity with a finite mind.  Eternal concepts scare us.  We see them with our eyes and we don't comprehend, or we see them as enormous forms that we cannot grasp.  Whether we are seeing an eternal progression with our eternal companion at our side, or whether we try to understand how we can truly stand before God with no recollection of those sins that we committed, but have been washed out by the Atonement of Jesus Christ, these things can only be seen through the eye of faith. 

Read the words of the song.  After our death, resurrection, and judgement, if we have been found worthy of Eternal Life, we are not immediately transformed, we simply begin that progression that goes through eternity.  No end, no end, no end.  continual progression.  It takes faith to understand that there is more than the daily mundane, and even the joy of earth.  We must take that seed of faith, and nurture it, water it with daily spiritual routines like prayer, pondering the scriptures, and living the commandments of God. As that seed grows, and we continue to take care of it, that faith becomes knowledge through the power of the Holy Ghost.  As that faith grows, we do begin to see and comprehend eternal truths.  They clarify as we gain spiritual strength.  We will be given light according to our ability to receive.  At times it will seem overwhelming.  With God giving us strength, we can get through any trial, and learn what we need to to grow.

Maybe that is why people feel awkward with the song.  It forces one to face that eternity. and to maybe grow a little as a result.