We Can Look Forward to Seeing Jesus 

I was sitting in our living room when I heard the familiar sound of my wife’s phone ringing. However, this wasn’t the ringtone for a normal call. It was the audio notification her device gives her when she is a receiving a video call. Knowing that such events are usually instigated by one of our children and often includes one or more of our grandchildren, I hurried into the room where my wife sat in order to get in on the encounter. Sure enough, when the picture came up on her phone, there was our seven-month-old grandson. As we began to talk to him, he smiled at us. Several times during this electronic visit, he reached out for the phone, as if he was trying to grab hold of us through that device. Near the end of the call, he even leaned over to plant a slobbery kiss on our image on the phone screen. We enjoy those opportunities to interact with members of our family when we are separated by distance, but it still isn’t as good as face-to-face meetings when we can actually feel those hugs and kisses.

Similarly, our interactions with Jesus in this life have their limitations. We weren’t privileged to be there when He was present in a physical body on this earth. We didn’t get to literally see His face, talk to Him, walk with Him, and lovingly lean against Him as the apostles did. On the other hand, our opportunities to interact with the resurrected Christ are in some ways greater than those who followed Him during His brief incarnation. Instead of being limited by time and space, now the Spirit of Jesus is always with us. He actually lives in us. Therefore we can enjoy His fellowship no matter the time, place, or situation. However, it still falls short of seeing Him face-to-face. We can sense His presence, but we typically don’t see Him with our eyes. We can talk to Him in prayer and hear Him speaking to us through His Word, His impressions on our minds, and various other ways He lets us know His will. His voice isn’t usually audible, but it still communicates to us. Yet even in those moments when He seems so close, we realize we are still looking through that glass dimly.

Won’t it be wonderful when that changes? If we are trusting Jesus as our Savior, we have heaven to look forward to once this life is over. Many of us are anticipating reunions with loved ones who have made that journey ahead of us. Nevertheless, the greatest encounter we will experience in that new state of existence will be when we actually see Jesus. As a well-known song suggests, I can only imagine. I don’t know if we will be bowing, leaping, shouting, or so caught up in the moment that no sound will be able escape our lips. But the divide between life and death that has kept us at a distance from our Savior will be removed. We will not only sense His presence; we will see Him. We will not just hear His words in our hearts, we will hear His voice. We will not only feel His touch on our soul, we will be able to feel Him actually touch us, hug us, and hold us close.

While I enjoy those video calls from my grandchildren, I treasure even more those times when we are together in person. Likewise, as much as we enjoy Jesus’ presence now, we can anticipate it rising to a whole new level one day when we are with Him. I hope you are trusting Him as your Savior and can look forward to that experience too.