I'm going to guess that I was about 8 or 9 when I had my first realization of the concept of eternity.
It scared the holy living crap out of me, too!
I would lie awake night after night, you know that time when all is quiet and there is nothing but your thoughts, and that thought would shove its way into my consciousness and terrorize me.
I am Italian living in America, so my concept of time is not understood by my neighbors. Isn't it amazing how something seemingly simple like time can differ so greatly depending on the culture? And religion... I was raised Latin Roman Catholic but studied theology. As a result, my belief system is an eclectic mix of a number of belief systems. I do not believe God is an old man in robes with a white beard, but I do believe there is a magnificent creative force with intelligence. I'll tell you why.
When I started focusing on my writing as a career, my mind opened to a myriad of ideas and realities. When I write a book I create characters and give them names, physical descriptions, hopes, dreams, flaws, etc. Kindof like a baby. I tell them what to do and shape their lives. But something strange and beautiful happens somewhere around the middle of the book.
My characters, my babies that I created, are now "older". And just like adolescent humans they start to make their own decisions! They begin to set the path they are on in the book!
I have tried to make their decisions for them- to write the way I had envisioned and make them do what I had wanted in the beginning when I thought up the book. But it's unnatural and it just doesn't work. They literally take their own steps on the path of their choosing, and I've learned to just allow it to be. And I love it!
It's an amazing phenomena to be a part of!
I am the creator of these "people". I start off when they are young and new with hopes and dreams of how they will turn out and what they will do and say and how they will act. But they form their own "free will" and do their own thing.
Because of this phenomena I know there is a force greater than myself. I know there is a creator.
And because of all of this I believe, down to the very core of my cells, that the universe, our reality, has no limits.
:)