Phil Cooke and Jonathan Bock share in their book The Way Back, that author and speaker Francis Chan has the best illustration of eternity that they've ever seen. During his message, he brings out a very long rope. We're talking long! The rope winds around and around the stage, and it eventually runs off the stage to who knows where. At one end of the rope is a one-inch section painted red. The rest of the rope is white.
In his talk, Chan explains that the short, one-inch red section of the rope is our life, while the rest of the rope is eternity. His point is clear: we spend so much time planning and worrying about such a short span, and we give remarkably little thought to what really counts—eternity.