(Thanks to Alison for inspiration on this one.)
"Face To Face"
Think of it. One day we shall look directly into the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will look into His eyes as He looks into our hearts.
"For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then, face to face" (I Corinthians 13:12).
We must allow the thought to overwhelm us with sublime wonder. What will it be like? We cannot really know. We do know that our eyes exist primarily to behold the Savior. This does not preclude countless other scenes for which our Heavenly Father created our ocular capacities. We have already used them for much during our earthly lifetime. However, eternity beckons to us with glories our presently unperfected vision could never behold.
I cannot help but think of Mr. Johnny, a sightless gentleman who lives at one of the retirement communities where we conduct services. Mr. Johnny once could see, but that is long in the past and his vision will not return in this lifetime. Thus, the next sight Mr. Johnny will see is the Lord Jesus. The trump of God will sound, the mortal eyes of our brother will put on immortality, and Mr. Johnny will gaze face to face into the eyes of His redeemer. I do not know if Mr. Johnny knows the hymn that sings, "What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see." We have not sung that hymn in a service for a very long time. However, I am confident that Mr. Johnny knows the hope and sentiment of a song that beckons him - and us - to anticipate the coming moment when we shall gaze upon the One who made our eyes, and the One for whom our eyes were made. Battered Job held such hope in his heart, and declared, "Yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold" (Job 19:26-27. Note, by the way, this interesting illumination of the Old Testament: no verse more speaks to the necessity of God the Son becoming "the Word made flesh").
Again, "we shall see Him as He is". Beauty and mystery present themselves in the holy contemplation. What will be be like to see the Lord Jesus face to face? We cannot know. The prospect is almost too wonderful and glorious to imagine. We can be certain of this, however: we will see in our Savior's face the glory of God, which Scripture most directly defines as His goodness (Exodus 33:18-19). We will see the Divine character and nature in perfect human expression, allowing us to know the love of God in a manner that completes our Lord's sanctifying process whereby we become completely conformed to His spiritual and moral image by beholding His glory (II Corinthians 3:18). What a day indeed that will be when we look into His eyes as He looks into our hearts.
"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
(II Corinthians 4:6)
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."
(I John 3:2)
Weekly Memory Verse
O the depths of both the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!
(Romans 11:33).
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