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The oldest tree in the world is high in the White Mountains of eastern California. The U.S. Forest Service has kept its location a secret to protect the 4,854-year-old bristlecone pine from vandalism. The nearly five-millennia-old tree is appropriately named Methuselah and dates back to the days when the real Methuselah walked the earth.  

Can you imagine the progression of this tree’s lifespan parallel to the biblical record? Maybe its first shoots poked through the frozen ground shortly after Noah and his family exited the ark. Methuselah’s trunk might’ve begun to take on its wind-swept, twisted appearance when Israel made her dramatic exodus. Its gnarled branches might’ve first begun to twist toward the sky right around the time Jesus was born in Bethlehem. 

As remarkable as Methuselah’s lifespan is, it is only a sigh compared to God’s eternality. We marvel at ancient things, and yet when the topic of eternity comes up, we often shy away from it. Try as we might to understand a God who has no beginning and no end, thinking about it too long feels like trying to see the end of our reflection in a funhouse mirror. Its never-endingness stretches the limits of our already finite minds.

Is the Son also the Everlasting Father?

However, these truths shouldn’t frustrate us but stir up more wonder, awe, and worship in our hearts. The first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, introduces us to God’s eternality.

“In the beginning, God…”. 

Before anything existed or was created, God was there. Isaiah refers to the Messiah’s eternality and held the tension of the eternal nature of the child by also calling him the Everlasting Father.  

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; 

and the government shall be upon his shoulder, 

and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

On the surface, don’t these statements seem contradictory? How could a child be born in time but exist outside of it? Or how could a newborn son also be the Everlasting Father? No wonder scholars scratched their heads at Isaiah’s prophecy for centuries. No mortal could be all these things simultaneously unless God, in his infinite wisdom, made it so.

The God who is both/and

But take heart, there is no contradiction in naming the Son the Everlasting Father. He is both/and. The attribute of his everlasting fatherhood doesn’t diminish or contradict his sonship but rather perfectly complements it. 

The original Hebrew of “Everlasting Father” is translated as Abi’ad (ab = ‘father’ and ad = ‘eternal’), which means “Father of Eternity.” Since he is before, above, and beyond time, he is also the possessor of eternity. And because he owns eternity, only he has the right to bestow eternal life on his children (Isa 57:15, Psa 45:6, Psa 90:2). 

But Jesus is not only the possessor of eternity, he is also a father. Not in the same sense that God the Father is our Father (since they are two distinct and separate persons). Jesus is one with the Father in nature and essence, and therefore, the only one who can reveal the Father’s love for us. He is the Father’s love with skin on. 

Undoubtedly, this stretches our imaginations like the funhouse mirrors.

Only in the infinite mind of God could Jesus be both a child born in time and the one who stood outside of it.

The baby born to Mary is from everlasting, and as the son given, he is fatherly in his love for us. Praise God that Jesus is our Everlasting Father! Such knowledge is too wonderful, it is high we cannot obtain it.

Lofty truths at ground level

We may avoid thinking about these things because they are lofty; if we’re honest, we don’t think they’re relevant to our suffering. We may ask, how does God’s everlasting fatherhood help me wait patiently, cope with a difficult marriage, or pray for a wayward child? 

But by believing these paradoxical truths, you will see how the eternal fatherhood of Jesus Christ is immensely practical for your pressing needs and present sufferings. Jesus said that believing in him leads to everlasting life (John 6:47). We daily need these lofty truths to meet us at the ground level of our lives.

Do you need direction?

Our God is beyond time, knows all things, and will be your guide forever (Psalm 48:14).

Do you want to know his will?

Rest in the truth that God is never weary or tired, and his understanding is inscrutable (Isaiah 40:28). When you don’t know what to do, meditate on his attribute of eternality.

Has your life dramatically changed?

Take comfort in Jesus Christ, who is eternal and the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8). When everything else changes, he remains the same.

Are you tired of trying to figure life out?

Look to the mountains and creation and remember they exist because Jesus told them to.  Worship him and lift your gaze. (Psalm 90:2).

Have people in your life let you down?

Your Everlasting Father loves you. He will be near to you and will never leave you or forsake you (Heb 13:5).

How could we have known that we needed a Messiah who stood outside of time, only to be then born and constrained by it, and would make him all the more mighty in our eyes? Or that to be a saving Son, he would need to embody the compassionate, tender love of the Father toward his children? Isaiah could only foretell these seemingly paradoxical characteristics of the Messiah, but we know them to gloriously converge in the person of Jesus Christ.

Why we need an Everlasting Father

We will never fully understand all the complexities of Jesus Christ, but we need to hold onto these complementary truths and embrace their tension.

While it may be uncomfortable, it wouldn’t hurt us to regularly gaze through the funhouse mirrors and consider our Everlasting Father. If they and the Methuselah tree teach us anything, it’s that life is short, and eternity is long.

What matters in light of eternity? Only to know the Everlasting Father and spend forever with him. I pray you know him.

May he be yours forever,

Cara

P.S. Meditate on the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace with this free one-page coloring sheet.