Word for Wednesday
For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12
When I was only nine or ten years old, my father and I stopped in to visit some people that he had known well but had not see in years. These older folks lived in a plain but comfortable old house. In the previous few years, old Fred had gone blind because of cataracts on both his eyes. As my father talked with him, Fred began to explain what was wrong with his eyes. My father asked him if he could see anything. No, Fred replied, he could not make out any shapes any longer, not even to tell if someone was standing before him. The only thing he could see was the difference between light and dark. I felt sorry for old Fred, because as a boy, I loved the beautiful trees and mountains and other wonderful scenery in our part of northern Nova Scotia. With Fred, he had a time when he could see all of those things, but the time came when he could barely make out anything. That is just the opposite of what we as Christians experience as we make our way to Heaven.
I can remember as a young Christian having a very poor understanding of some of the precious truths that we hold as the Lord’s people. Over the years, I have learned a few things, and now that I have become an old man, some of those things are fairly clear. But just like you, there are many things that I don’t understand as well as I would like. I see many mysteries in the Word, things I would love to know more perfectly. There are many aspects of our future home in the Glory that I am longing to learn. There are precious truths concerning our Lord and Saviour that I want to discover and enjoy. But now, just like you, I am seeing these things through a glass darkly. For whatever reason, these things are not coming into focus. Not yet. But they will all be known in that great day when the dark glass of humanity and sinful flesh will be replaced with the glorious light of Heaven.
Our imaginations can work overtime, and never come near to the wonderful beauty and joy of Heaven. When we read of streets paved with gold, we are reading of a more lovely gold than the so-called precious metal of earth. When we read of mansions being prepared, we are reading of dwellings that make any of the ones we have seen here look beggarly. When we read of a river pure as crystal, we are reading of a stream whose purity has never been imagined here. When we read of gates of pearl, we are reading of gems more beautiful than any earthly oyster has ever created. And those are just the beginning. Think of the wonders of the Word of God that are a struggle for us to understand now; these things will be all unfolded to us in their perfection. And our eternal delight will be to appreciate the continual unfolding of the riches of the grace of the Lord Jesus.
The prospects are wonderful; we can’t understand yet that which awaits us in the Glory, but we can imagine and anticipate, and long for home. -Jim MacIntosh