One Day As A Thousand Years

“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness.” – 2 Peter 3:8

When the kids were younger, one of the hardest questions to answer was the one Dave would ask on coming home from work: “how was the day?” It was impossible to summarize. Every moment felt like an extremity of emotion: incredible elation when something cute was said or a gross motor milestone was achieved. Inexpressible frustration when the milk spilled, or a diaper blow-out delayed getting out of the house on time, or I had to discipline someone several times in a row. Sometimes it wasn’t a moment at all but the low-grade, constant state of fatigue that bled into everything else.

This happens to some degree for all of us, I think. There are moments we experience that are hard for others to ever fully understand: inner battles, mental struggles, a particularly rewarding or challenging encounter at work or home. There are moments too awesome or terrible to put into words, too close to share easily.

It’s really special that Peter says here that with God, one day is as a thousand years. That means God experiences one hour of our day as 41.7 years. One minute to him lasts 251 days. Can you imagine existing within one minute as if it lasted over eight months? How many different ways would you experience that minute? What kind of understanding would you come to about what happened in that minute? How would you come to see, feel, and think about it? 

I’m not sure we’re meant to take the expression quite that literally, but the point is, God comprehends our every moment in a way that no one can. In a way that perhaps even we can’t. There is nothing in our day that is lost to him. There is nothing we can’t share with him. There is no moment he does not understand.