Friday, November 6, 2009

FACES AS THEY WILL APPEAR

A Musing from an old Journal entry:

Sometimes our eyes are focused too close to the "here and now". We forget about the "will be".

God sees us as we will be. In other words, He sees us as already having attained that which we will attain when we leave this earth. Be patient with me as I ramble on.

There are always people that rub us the wrong way. We struggle constantly in our dealings with other people...imperfect people (as are we). Our own personality flaws cause us to dislike (or at least feel uncomfortable with) certain people. They're imperfect. We're imperfect. It's natural that we occasionally clash. Sometimes we simply have a difficult time understanding others who are in the midst of dealing with the pains that life has dealt them. I don't think I'm unique in relational difficulties. I think we all experience this. Daily.

Several years ago I was sitting in church. I looked around at the faces of those who had come to church that morning. I realized that their faces were etched with the experience of their years, all those losses, all those struggles, all those times when life's promises fell short.

None of us gets through life without being buffeted, punched, brought low by illness or death of a loved one, by some tragic circumstance, or even by the steady grind of daily life. It is our human lot. And that morning, as I looked around, the faces of my friends reflected the blows that life had dealt them. Their faces had become what they had experienced.

And then the Lord showed me their faces as they will appear in heaven, faces that will be clear and clean. Clear of anger, sorrow, frustration, loss. Clear of tears and disease and abuse. Clean faces. Full of joy. In my mind's eye they looked so beautiful!

I realized that's how God sees us and that's how we will be.

So that brings me to today's Scripture:
Revelation 21:4 "...and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

4 comments:

Kelly said...

This is so good!

I cling to that verse in Revelation when it comes to a particular "sorrow" I carry with me daily.

Thank you for sharing this.

Karen said...

Beautiful post! Thanks for the reminder. Just imagine how wonderful heaven will be!

(Or at least, TRY to imagine that!)

Scott said...

Really good. It makes me think. It makes me think about how I should love my friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ and think also of the hope we mutually share.

Debby said...

What a lovely post, WhiteStone. Truly. This gave me a lovely Sunday school lesson for tomorrow. Teenagers are so quick to make fun of someone they see as different. This will make the perfect lesson. Thank you.