We are all ghosts to you!

In the recent episode “Hide” (Series 7/9) the Doctor and Clara investigate a haunted house, joining a psychic and a professor who are seeking the mysterious ghost of the Witch of the Well. Midway through the episode we see Clara most upset as she suddenly realises the darker side of time travel. She sees who she is, mere dust (a mere breath that is here today and gone tomorrow), compared to this adventurous time lord who can feel the turn of the universe. Here is the conversation, after the Doctor has tracked the ghost to the literal ‘end of the earth’.

D: What’s wrong?
C: Have we just watched the entire life cycle of earth, birth to death?
D: Yes
C: And you’re ok with that?
D: Yes
C: How can you be?
D: The TARDIS, she is Time, with wibbly vortex and so on
C: It’s not what I mean . . .  To you I haven’t been born yet, and to you I’ve been dead a hundred billion years. Is my body out there somewhere in the ground?
D: Yes I suppose it
C: But here we are talking, so I am a ghost. To you, I’m a ghost, we’re all ghosts to you. We must be nothing!
D: No, no you’re not that.
C: Then what are we, what can we possibly be?
D: You are the only mystery worth solving.

I can’t help but make the connection here and ponder how the True Lord of Time, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, sees us!  Jesus sees us not as we do, as people wrapped up in bodies that age, bound by time pressures and appointment and wrinkles. He sees who we are and will be into eternity. He sees our hearts, our souls, he knows our thoughts. He knows if we are His, and if we are His he is looking after our eternal home (“I’m going to prepare a place for you” –  John 14:1-4) and we will be with Him forever (unlike the companions of the Doctor).

And unlike the Doctor’s view of Clara, we are not just a mystery worth solving. In fact we are not a mystery to God. He knows our names, He sees us as the Crown of His Creation, unique individuals created to live in a perfect relationship with Him. We are far from nothing. We are worth God sending His only Son to rescue us from an eternity apart from Him!

The band Casting Crowns has created a beautiful picture of how the True Time Lord sees us, in the song “Already There.” Jesus, our Saviour, is waiting for us on the other side! To Him we are already there with Him – but we must take the slower path. This is truly timey-wimey stuff to wrap your brain around on a Friday night!
“When I’m lost in the mystery, To You my future is a memory
Cause You’re already there, You’re already there
Standing at the end of my life, Waiting on the other side
And You’re already there, You’re already there”

All this points to the great assurance we have in Christ. Those the Father has given to the Son will be held securely in his hands, no one can snatch them away – see John 10:28-29.

Now I really must finish by pointing you to a great little youtube montage which someone has put together, inspired by that opening dialogue from Episode 9, which shows just how much the Doctor loves us humans! (which admittedly is but an echo of the greatest love of Christ).