For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
- 1 Corinthians 13:12
As you read these words, my family and I are enjoying a week in Spain—eating the food, visiting the museums, and soaking up as much of the culture as we can in a week. What a blessing it is to have this time learning about a country with such a rich history!
One figure who looms large over Spanish culture is Pablo Picasso, the famed Cubist painter of works like Guernica and Weeping Woman. In these paintings and others like them, Picasso breaks up his subjects into geometric shapes, then reassembles them abstractly. The result, as we’ve seen, is that when you’re looking at a Picasso painting, you know what you’re seeing, but it looks…off. You almost have to squint to understand what you’re looking at.
The Bible tells us that our life in Christ is kind of like that. For those who know Jesus as Lord, we have received a measure of the life to come. Our salvation is secured, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and we know the presence of the Lord.
Yet this is only a shadow of what awaits us in heaven, when we will see the Lord face to face and know him fully, as we are now fully known by him. Knowing the Lord in this life is incomparably better than not knowing him, but it pales in comparison with the joy to come in eternity.
When you squint at the best this God-given world has to offer, you can see the glory of God, but you have to squint. The ultimate blessing still awaits those who know the Lord—and praise God, we will see it with eyes wide open.
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