⁹ “… for they are Yours; ¹⁰ and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.

Before anything else existed, God was all there was. Some modern atheists ascribe to the popular notion, “The cosmos is all there is,” but that is a greater assertion of faith than the belief in a creator God. A much more reasonable faith sees that the universe reflects intelligent design, and thus leads us to believe that there is Designer behind it all. Thus, before the cosmos (i.e., all of creation) existed, there was God. If we accept what scientists tell us, that time is a measure of change, then we are left with utter amazement and mystery as to what time means when speaking of a God who existed before anything else existed.

Obviously there was a change when creation took place—and that would be, from human perspective, when time began. So, even to speak of “before” the creation there was God is a conundrum. Possibly it might be better to speak of God as being “outside” of time, where He can observe all of time as eternally present to Him, from beginning to end. So the universe is finite, it had a beginning, but God is not finite, He had no beginning—for such a notion has no meaning outside of time, where God exists.

Jesus speaks in His Upper Room prayer about all things created being shared between the Father and Son, and this goes beyond the sequence of ‘before and after’ that is the normal way of thinking about time. Therefore, this sharing of all things is a complete and absolute sharing, there is no time when they didn’t share them. Fascinating is the thought that in forming creation, God desired to share it all with humanity, His image bearers, as seen in the story of Adam and Eve. He placed them in the Garden of Eden and instructed them to “cultivate” it and eat freely from the trees (Gen 2:15). Only in one regard did God not want to share with us, and that was the “Knowledge of Good and Evil.” In fact, that would be a sharing of that which is not shared among the community of the Persons of God. For evil is that which is not God, actions apart from communion with Him. God cannot do that within Himself, that is, act against Himself. But in creating humans as independent image bearers, He created the possibility of evil, of moral agents capable of acting independently of God. That is what the tree represented.

So evil (or sin to use a related word) is acting apart from full communion with God. To seek to enjoy life apart from Him. That is a violation of the community of sharing in God and His image bearers.

Father, I want to share in the fellowship You enjoy with Your Son.