Face to Face

“𝑳𝒆𝒕 𝑯𝒊𝒎 𝒌𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒆.”  Song of Songs 1:1

I long for the day when I shall see my Beloved face to face, when I shall stand before Him and there will be no distance at all.  I will see every little detail of His beautiful face, see His smile, the crinkles at the corners of His eyes.  I will know Him the way He knows me. I will be able to hold His hand, touch His fingers, see the scars in His wrists, knowing He endured the nails for me.  Face to face.  Can you imagine?!  There will be nothing quite like it. 

1 Corinthians 13:12 says; “𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓, 𝒅𝒊𝒎𝒍𝒚, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆. 𝑵𝒐𝒘 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒏 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝑰 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒂𝒎 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏.”  Way back in the city of Corinth, even though they were famous for making gorgeous, ornate mirrors, the mirrors they made were hammered out of polished bronze.  The reflection you could see was indistinct, unclear, and even distorted.  All you could make out was a dim reflection.  Sometimes we see Jesus that way, life’s journey distorts our thoughts of what He is really like.  Perceptions and opinions give us an unclear vision of our Beloved.

As a young girl, my father was hard to please, it seemed as though everything I did was not good enough.  Nothing made him smile, nothing made him proud.  Did you have one of those dads?  My perception of my Abba Father became skewed, and I filtered my view of Him through my experiences.  As I looked in the tainted mirror at Father God, I saw a God who was angry, a God who no matter how much time I spent in His Word, in prayer, serving, working, He could never ever be pleased with me!  Oh, how wrong I was!  But it wasn’t until I had my own children that I understood the love of my Father.  

I remember watching my son take his first step – I was so proud.  One little baby step and then down he went!  But he did it, he tried!  Or my daughter when she fed herself with a spoon that first time, now that was a moment. She got the spoon in her mouth but most of those squishy sweet potatoes went all over her face!  But oh, how I praised her, I grinned from ear to ear and couldn’t wait to tell her Dad.  It makes me chuckle even now to think of how proud I was.  That’s your Dad, that’s your Abba Father, proud of everything you do, smiling when you try.

And so, I long for that day, when I will see my Abba Father, see my Jesus, face to face.  No distance between us. The day when I will know Him fully just as I am fully known.  When all those twisted perceptions will be blown away by His smile, by the incredible love in His eyes.