Such A Lot Of Time

I did it. I actually used 10 gigs of internet time this month! First time ever. Usually I have 3 or 4 gigs left over at the end of the month. This month, however, I discovered History Channel, Discovery Channel and National Geographic stuff on YouTube. I also found some other stuff on YouTube as well, but it is 'fringe' stuff, only interesting in a "boy, that is weird" way. ha ha!

I learned about a possible underwater city off the coast of Japan.
I learned about the lost pyramids of Peru.
I learned about the lost temples of Thailand.
I learned about the Nazca Lines in Peru.
I learned about a non-Asian race of people who lived in China before Marco Polo discovered China.
Oh, I just learned about all sorts of interesting things!

All of them ancient.
Some of them possibly 13,000 years old. Others only 1500 years old.

On Monday Mel and I walked down to the city center and had pizza at Chilentanos Pizza. That's the place with the really good salad I wrote about before, but I didn't have that salad this time. :)

Mel went inside while I sat at a table outside under the big blue umbrellas. He suffered in the heat while I saved us a place. I love that guy! A lot.

And while I waited - I watched people. I watched people walk by from one side and from another. I watched some people walk up the alley to my right. I watched a few people walk down the alley to my left. I watched old people. I watched children. I watched fat people and I watched very skinny people. I even watched a lot of medium sized people. I saw a few tall people and a whole lot of regular height people. I even saw a couple of very short people, but not as short as the teeny woman I saw on the trolleybus the other day (she was child-sized and about 40 years old).

I drank my bottle of warm water and tried to stop making eye contact with the young man who sat facing me. His girl friend freely stared at me, but that's normal - I just don't feel comfortable staring back like that. Watching people walk by is NOT staring at them. Really. Truly.

As I sat there watching literally a couple hundred or more people walk by, I thought about the YouTube videos I'd watched. I thought about all of the people who have lived and died on this earth. I thought about how little we know about most of them. I thought about how smart we think we are now - but I wonder - how smart were those people who lived at the time of the Lost Pyramids in Peru? And how intelligent were the people who built the temples that are now underwater off the coast of northwestern and southeastern India?

We think we are at the pinnacle right now of man's evolution. No one has been as smart and advanced as we are today. But I wonder.....

I don't believe in man's evolution - in fact, if anything I think man is not as smart as he was a few thousand years ago! Back when God created Adam and Eve they had perfect brains and perfect bodies, totally untainted with sin. We have no idea how long they lived. We have no idea if they had children before The Fall (I don't remember reading in Genesis that Cain and Abel were their FIRST children, just that Adam knew his wife and she had first one and then the other - and who were the sons of God who married the daughters of men anyway, could they have been pre-Cain and Abel children of Adam and Eve? I have NO idea - actually, I just now thought about it and will ask Mel later tonight when we go to bed. It seems to me that Adam and Eve had a whole lot more kids than we know anything about, and that since he was created first, all of his kids would have been under the curse whether they were born pre-Fall or post-Fall. I'm sure there's some kind of heresy in my thinking here - that's why God gave me Mel! Or part of the reason anyway. :) )

So, back to the subject at hand...

I am not a young-earth Christian. I believe the earth is very old so it is not difficult for me to think that some of these civilizations really could be 13,000 years old.

Oh, there is so much we DO NOT KNOW! Who built those cities? Who left the Nazca Lines in the desert of Peru? Why? So many things to learn about, so little time!

And as I looked at all the people walking by, there on Suvorova Street, I thought about all the people who have lived, who have drunk water, juice, wine, and peed, who have left all sorts of bodily fluids (I've watched CSI!) all over the place, who have died and their bodies have returned to the dust from whence they came. So many millions and millions of people and we know nothing AT ALL about them!

All of these people - souls who exist in either heaven or hell now for all eternity. Maybe billions. Many.

Such a lot of time has gone by on this earth, no matter how old you happen to think it is. Such a lot of time. Wars. Plagues. Famines. Earthquakes. Ice ages. Tsunamis. Old age. Disease. Such a lot of time, so much has happened.

I watched those people on Monday and thought about them. I see them now. I am alive and I see them. Will mankind exist on this present earth long enough that we, too, will all be totally forgotten?

It is possible.

We may be forgotten here on this earth - but as Christians we will be ALIVE forever with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for all eternity.

Eternity. Now THAT is such a lot of time!

I saw mummies.