Face to Face

In Heaven in the presence of the Lord, is when we will be able to fully appreciate and express our appreciation for God, in fullness and entirety.

Here on earth, we still don’t completely understand Him. Here, we’re distracted by a million other things. Here, we’re bogged down by our responsibilities, that we don’t take the time to just praise God, to truly express our appreciation of Him or our joy in Him.

We don’t even fully understand the magnitude of who He is in our lives, who He’s been all through history, since before He created the universe. We can’t even begin to understand how He can be the raging fire of holiness and justice against sin, while also being a gracious, loving Father, who numbers the very hairs on our heads and turns His attentive ear to our feeble cries for mercy. Our minds cannot even comprehend how He sets things in motion in the millions of galaxies above and governs the clouds, winds and oceans, while also staying in control of every tiny hatchling that breaks out of its egg and every breath that a baby takes.

We don’t see our lives from His perspective. We don’t see all the ways He’s planned and laid out our lives. We don’t see how He’s orchestrated each interaction with each person that we ever met, every experience, emotion, understanding and learning we’ve ever had and the grand culmination of it all, in order for us to fulfill the purpose that He created us for. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve adequately expressed the understanding of this, that I have in my head, right now.

But in heaven, I will understand how God does it all. And I won’t be short of words to express my awe, wonder, gratitude and appreciation for it. I won’t be distracted by my daughter stirring in her sleep, or the stray thoughts that come into my mind and make me lose track of what I was saying or thinking, or the way my brain is nagging me, making me think of the words to put in this post, interrupting His revelation of all of this to me.

I will be able to see God, hear Him, understand how He led my life on earth, witness His incredible majesty, and be able to respond to all of it appropriately. Today I don’t even know what the appropriate response is, so often. But in heaven, I won’t have that problem.

For now we see only a reflection in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

I Corinthians 13:12

Oh, that I may never outgrow this longing to see You, my Lord, face to face and in perfect clarity; not as I see You today, through these dull, mortal eyes, heart and mind. And may that always be what drives my desire for Heaven!

This post is God opening my eyes, in response to this.