"In"

...our Lenten Pilgrimage of Prepositions continues .

"To" and "from" are both prepositions often used to express directional action, indicating destination or origin.  Both also invite the question "where?"  which in turn leads us to prepositions of place like - in, on, at, by, over, under, etc.  The most common of these is probably "in."

When asked where are you?  Our response will often be something like, "I'm in (name your city, state, or country),"  or "I'm in town," or "in my car."  We describe emotional and relational states as "in love," "in a relationship," "in touch," etc.  Descriptions of life circumstances include, "in trouble," "in the soup," "in a dark place," "in a good place," "in control," etc.  We always seem to be "in" something.

Let me suggest that perhaps the ultimate "in" is what we call time and space.  Our lives take place in a continuum of thoughts and events that succeed from one to another through past, present, and future.  The continuum we call "time."  The dimension in which thoughts and events occur we call "space."  We are ultimately and always in time and space, both of which are considered boundless or infinite or eternal. Eternity is therefore not a time or place in the future but rather the time and place where we always are.  We live in eternity.

The names we give this eternal existence are most often the Divine Names of our religious and spiritual traditions.  Even scientific language becomes ethereal when speaking of ultimate reality, using words like "mystery" and even "faith" or "trust" when speaking of ultimate matters.

Regardless of the language we use to speak of the infinite and eternal the fact is we are "in" it!

The Apostle Paul when speaking to a group of people in ancient Athens quotes one of their own poets and says: "In God we live and move and have our being."