  Although the eternal is timeless, some temporal metaphors might more aptly characterize the eternal than others. Some theists describe the life of the divine being as one that is ‘eternally present’, an expression that on its face is explicitly contradictory. Yet describing the divine life as eternally present seems more apt than describing it as eternally past. McTaggart cites several considerations that favor metaphorically describing the eternal as present. First, the present changes only by ceasing to be present and the eternal never changes. The constancy of the eternal is like that of the present while it continues to be present. Second, many hold that the present enjoys more reality than the past or the future, and many also hold that eternal things enjoy more reality than that which is in time. So the present is more like the eternal than is the past, at least in this respect. Third, the role of the eternal in our emotional lives seems similar to the role of the present. McTaggart claims that one who loves an eternal God experiences an emotion relevantly like one who loves a presently existing thing, and not at all alike the emotion of one who loves something that is merely past or yet to be. Finally, neither past things nor future things have causal efficacy, but arguably both present and eternal things do.