Grasping the Concept of Eternity

Until recently, I had always viewed eternity as an unlimited span of time… Wrong! Eternity has nothing to do with time. Time is for this world that we know, which will eventually cease to exist. Time is a measurement based on the orbit of stars, moons, and planets, changing of seasons, aging of matter, and so on. Eternity, on the other hand, is a habitat (Isaiah 57:15). Time is rigid and linear. At this particular point in time, only one direction can be clearly seen- the past.
The best way I have found to describe eternity is as a faceted realm. From any point in eternity, everything can be seen. God is omnipresent and omniscient. He inhabits eternity and sees everything and knows everything. This puts my mind into a bit of a pretzel! This is why people can be touched when watching, reading, or listening to a powerful teaching or worship service long past- the Holy Spirit knows no bounds. He weaves around and moves throughout our time. God sees our time in entirety, as well as the age to come.
Therefore, we must not think of what God was doing or where He was before Genesis 1:1 as an endless time span of thought or endless nothingness, but rather, think of Him as dwelling in His faceted, glory-filled habitation, surrounding this realm in which we now reside. He has more of a “bird’s eye” perspective, in comparison to our linear, one way perspective.
Well, what did God think before He created? Another wrong thought! A.W. Tozer states in Knowledge of the Holy, “In Him word and idea are indivisible.” God is perfect and without fault. Hence, He has no need to think about or plan out anything, because it will always be perfect! I believe He created the universe in seven literal days and laid out the idea of time for our sake. To Him, all of history is but a flash, quick as a snap of the fingers (2Peter 3:8). The aspect of a time span just shows us how much care He has taken in creating all that we see.