Appreciation of the present moment is highly important. Though fleeting in its brevity, this moment serves to link the future with the past. Considered in this way, the unique present instant constitutes that which is called now, and this word meant much to the Apostle Paul, who declared (II Cor. 6:2), "Now is the day of salvation."
The Bible brings out clearly the fact that eternity is at hand. For example, the writer of Ecclesiastes said (3:15), "That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past."
For a long time, whenever the writer read the Jews' question (John 8:57), "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" and Jesus' reply, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am," he could not account for Jesus' use of the present tense. It seemed to the writer that there was a grammatical error and that the sentence should be corrected to read, "Before Abraham was, I was." Today, with the enlightenment brought to him by Christian Science, the writer rejoices in the understanding that Jesus' intent was to draw the attention of his listeners to the eternal presence of the Christ, man's true selfhood, above and beyond the chronological considerations of the human mind.
