Is time an illusion we use to make sense of the universe?

Yes, time is an illusion created by your memory to adjust your perception of this space/time. We only exist in the NOW as an image. Just as a picture is flat and our mind creates the illusion of a linear depth that does not really exist in that image, so too your memory creates the illusion of a past and future that do not exist NOW at this instant. The picture is an image which is a dimensionally compressed representation of a higher dimensional reality (namely 3D space) and this 3D reality is also a image, or dimensionally compressed representation of a higher dimensional reality (namely 4D eternity) The picture is extremely flat as compared to the space it represents just as this universal now is extremely brief as compared to the 4D eternity it represents. The identifying hallmark of images are therefore its missing dimensions. We cannot create true 3D images and never will because we are ourselves 3D. God on the other hand is 4D and can created a true 3D image and thus you really are created in his image, which denotes the place of your creation and not the form of your creation.