Friday, March 20, 2009

Through a Glass, Darkly


Yesterday morning I woke to darkness, as I have since the changing of the clocks a few weeks ago. As the dawn broke, I was aware that the area outside was shrouded in a thick fog. I could barely see through it. There were dim shapes of the homes and trees in our neighborhood, but nothing was clear.

I was reminded of the scripture verse, " now we see through a glass darkly, then we shall see face to face." Each one of us has our own ideas, based on our understanding of the scriptures and on what we've been taught, of what heaven will be like. Do any of us know? I don't believe so. I think, because our vision is clouded in this life, that we've 'manufactured' an image with which we can be comfortable. We cannot see beyond the sunset, so we do not know for sure what the place looks like.

We search the Word of God for clues, for indications. We find text that describes 'streets of gold' and 'mansions'. We know that Jesus will be there, that the Judge will sit upon a throne, that no one leaves there once they've entered in and that no one will get in without their name being in the Lamb's Book of Life. But, with all this, we still see 'through a glass darkly.'

The day will come for each one of us when we will find the answers that elude us in this life. There will come a time when this life will end and we will find ourselves in a new location, one which we made our goal during our life's journey. Hopefully we have chosen Heaven as our eternal home. When that day comes, we will see clearly what it looks like there. We will see it in all its glory. But at that time, I don't believe it will matter what Heaven looks like, for we will see Jesus, face to face, and that will be enough.