With My Own Two Eyes

My family and I just had the absolute gift of travelling to Italy for 9 days to attend a wedding, and while we were there, we saw as much of the magnificent country as we could. It was an unbelievable trip. We had never been across the Atlantic, so on many levels, it was simply amazing. I am so grateful for the trip.
 
We saw a lot when we were there (Rome, Tuscany, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Cinque Terre), but the thing that kept hitting me over and over again was how breathtaking it was to see these places – and iconic things – in person, with my own two eyes. I’ve seen photos of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and of Michelangelo’s David, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but to see these incomparably iconic things with my own two eyes was often overwhelming.
 
I stared up at the ceiling at the Creation of Adam and couldn’t believe I was seeing it with my own two eyes. I’ve seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa painted on every wall of every Italian restaurant I’ve been in in NJ, but to be 10 feet from it and see up close was unforgettable. The statue of David struck me in a way I wasn’t expecting – its size and boldness and precision impacted me when I saw it up close with my own two eyes.
 

We see photos, paintings, renderings, reproductions of these things – but to see them with your own two eyes is simply, well, hard to describe.

Do you know what it made me imagine, however?
 

How incomprehensible it will be when we finally see God face to face, with our own two eyes.

 
All we see of God now is paintings, renderings, reproductions, imaginations, shadows, and glimmers at best. The best we see now, as Paul puts it, is as if “through a mirror, darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12). I can’t imagine what it’ll be like. If seeing the glory of Michelangelo’s David with my own two eyes was overwhelming, it’s impossible to even pretend to begin to start to imagine what it’ll be like to see the glory of the God who made Michelangelo and David (and you and me and everything else!). All of a sudden, it makes sense why Moses had to where a veil over his face after being in God’s presence. The glory of God was simply too much for them!
 
But there will be a time, as Revelation promises – and as unimaginable as it is, that we, with our own two eyes, “will see his face” (Rev. 22:4).
 

So what do we do until then?

 
Well, it’s a challenging question. Or rather, a challenging answer. As John puts it in his first letter,
 

“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

I think what he means to say is that although no one has ever seen God, when we love one another, God lives in us, his love is filled out through us, and when that happens, people will get the best view of God they can this side of eternity. Put more simply,
 

When we love others, people ‘see’ God with their own two eyes.

People ‘see’ God when they are loved by others.

And that’s our job as Christians and as the church: to represent, bear witness to, show people God – in and through love.

 
I’ve experienced that. Have you?
 

Better yet, how can we do that for others?

 
Let’s get to it in whatever way we can.