SEEING HIS FACE
I can’t confess a level of holiness or affection for Jesus that leads me to be ecstatic at the very thought of seeing his face. There are things I can say about him that have the full consent of my heart but there are other faces that generate in me a level of tender affection that I don’t feel about Jesus at present. To name no more just let me mention Ethel and Jim and Linda and George, our children—the thought of these fills me with an affection I don’t feel for God or Jesus. I’m not sure that that’s a defect though I often think it must be. Surely, I tell myself, since he has been so good to me down the years I should feel affection for him above all others. I feel many things toward him but affection isn’t how I’d characterize them. The lack of such a feeling is what it is and he knows it and knows how to respond to it. However he judges it is how it should be understood. I accept that.
Within my present limits I can fully acknowledge my own utter dependence on him and my conviction that all of us without exception are and can be nothing without him. My feelings for him and my attitude toward him come to me through what I know of him through the scriptures and life’s blessings and experiences. Right now there are faces I am more eager to see than his dear face but I am looking forward to seeing the face of him who has made all other faces beloved to me.
I look forward to seeing the face of him who gave me my Ethel and all the joy and the richness of her presence in my life!
I look forward to seeing the face of him who gave us our children who have enriched and blessed us.
I look forward to seeing the face of him I have to thank for friends who would not let me go and helped me stay on my feet in perilous and painful times.
I look forward to seeing the face of him who blessed me (as he has blessed millions) with forgiveness and the assurance of life with him and those I have come to know and love through him.
I look forward to seeing the face of him who called me (as he has called millions of others) to a place of service and to a mission in human history that stuns the imagination.
I look forward to seeing the face of him who has given me (as he has given millions of others) the assurance and confidence that I will see my Ethel again, all fresh and new and well and deathless and joy-filled and that we can “hang-out” together forever.
All that and more I feel. It may not be “affection” but it’s something and it’s heartfelt and saturated with gratitude.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.