A few years back I was sitting in a coffee shop across the table from a friend of mine who is an atheist. We had gotten into another deep discussion about spiritual things, and she suddenly asked me a pointed question about why so many Christians in her life cared so much about what she believed. It was something along the lines of, "I'm happy. Why can't you all just be glad for me that I am happy?" Why indeed? It was a good question. At the time, it threw me off balance, and I didn't have an immediate answer for her. Then it hit me on my drive home as her question lingered in my mind: "I not only want you to be happy - I want you to be happy forever."

God is eternal, and it is this attribute that lends permanence and meaning to all of his great promises, which find their fulfillment in Christ, including that of eternal life. The fact that he is eternal means that he never had a beginning and he will never have an end. He has existed from eternity past, and will for eternity future. As God revealed through his servant Moses, "From everlasting to everlasting you are God" (Psalm 90:2, emphasis mine). Revelation speaks of four creatures who constantly cry out before God's throne:

"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!" (Revelation 4:8).

Though dwelling on this truth may stretch our finite minds to exhaustion, it is also the basis for our hope. As a result of sin and death coming into the world through the Fall, human life is fleeting. Yet, we long for, and were made for, eternity. God "has put eternity into man's heart" (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and this is a longing that can only be satisfied in Christ. Praise God that his grace "now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:9-10)!

There is coming a day when all people who ever lived will be resurrected - some to eternal life, and others to eternal death and torment (1 Corinthians 15:52-57; Revelation 20:12-15). Those who trust in Christ's finished work on the cross to justify them before God have an eternity with him to look forward to, and this eternity will be filled with unspeakable joy:

"You make known to me the path of life;
    
   in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    
   at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).

Complete and total joy that knows no end; our hearts will be satisfied with nothing less. This is why we care about what others believe. We have the only truth that brings full, eternal joy - joy that runs far deeper than any temporal happiness.