Face-to-face

Because I am righteous, I will see you. When I awake, I will see you face to face and be satisfied.

Psalm 17:15

One September day two weeks before my mother died, I was sitting by her hospital bed holding her hand. Mama’s strength was failing, and her breathing had become extremely laborious, yet in those moments as she spoke, her eyes shone with a hope and joy that defied the suffering she was enduring.

“Cheri, I have been praying for you and all my six children and twenty-two grandchildren for many years. But pretty soon I’m going to get to see Jesus face-to-face and get to talk to him about you all,” she said with a smile. She closed her eyes as her head relaxed on the pillow, and I sat pondering those words. Sure enough, only two weeks later, Mama entered eternity, special delivery, wrapped up in love.

In the twenty-eight years since the day Mama spoke those words to me, I have never forgotten them. She knew as well as I that it isn’t our righteousness that allows us to see the face of God; it is our right standing and relationship with the Father through what Christ has done for us. Nevertheless, we are promised that though we now see imperfectly, like looking at a poor reflection in a mirror, when we pass out of mortality into immortality, we shall see the Lord face-to-face and see with clarity, as 1 Corinthians 13:12 describes. We will know God just as directly and intimately as he knows us now. All the sorrow and pain of life on earth will pass away, and we will experience the privilege of seeing his glory, the glory of our one and only Lord and Savior.

Oh God, fill us with the expectation and assurance that the best is yet to come, that no matter what happens on this earth, you have eternal joy awaiting us when we see you face-to-face and worship you in perfect harmony with all the angels and saints. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Eternity will not be long enough to learn all he is, or to praise him for all he has done, but then, that matters not; for we shall be always with him, and we desire nothing more.

Frederick William Faber(1814–1863), English hymn writer and theologian