Seeing Love

Many, many years ago I was assigned a seat in the last row of my 2nd grade class.  That is the advantage of having a last name that starts with "S" - I was nearly always in the last row!  This time though, it wasn't an advantage - I couldn't read the blackboard.  I complained to Mrs. Teach and she moved me up a few rows.  That didn't seem to help much, so I let her know that I still couldn't see the blackboard.  Mrs. Teach once again moved me up - this time all the way to the 2nd row.  

Wouldn't you know it?  I still couldn't see the blackboard!  Mrs. Teach didn't think that was normal, so she sent me off to the Nurse's Office for an eye check.  After the impromptu eye exam, the school nurse wrote a letter and gave it to me to take home to my parents.  When I got home that night, I gave the note to Mom and ran out to play.  Within a couple of days I was headed to Bethany to see the local optometrist.  The news was not good - I had 20-100 vision.  I think the scientific term for that is "blinder than a bat."  Within weeks, this scrawny little boy was wearing  ugly thick-framed, black plastic glasses. 

I remember stepping outside with my new glasses on and looking up at the sky.  For the first time in my life I could see stars!  I had always assumed the sky was cloudy since I could never saw any stars.  And instead of a big yellow blob, the moon had distinct features.  I felt like I had entered a whole new world!

One day after school, I took my glasses off and ran outside to play.  Dad was moving some of our horses to winter pasture, and I climbed up in the pickup with him.  The horses were moving down the road in front of us, and I asked Dad where he got that little white colt.  He looked at me funny and asked, "What white colt?"  I pointed at the back of the horses at this white blob following the small herd.  Dad said, "That is your brother!"  He was wearing a white t-shirt and I couldn't tell the brat from a colt!

1 Corinthians 13:12 says, "Now we see but a poor reflection as 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."  This verse comes from the Bible's famous "love chapter."  What is Paul trying to tell us?  The mirrors of Paul's day weren't the nearly-perfect mirrors we have today.  They typically were polished metal, and didn't reflect all that well.  Just as I couldn't see my brother well enough to recognize him, we will not fully know love until we see God face-to-face.  The best love this world has to offer is nothing but a very poor reflection of the perfect love of God.  God's love was best demonstrated when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in our place.  What an awesome display of love!  I can't wait to meet Him face-to-face and fully experience His love forever in heaven!