So Much Better Than This

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face...
~1 Corinthians 13: 12a

When I mow the lawn, I wear earmuffs (the kind that reduce sound, not the ones that warm the ears; I gather that they have the same name). Mowing both our lawns probably takes half an hour or so, and by the time I finish, my level of hearing feels fairly normal. I've grown used to the earmuffs, and I don't actively think, "Wow, how dull everything sounds!" But when I take them off, there is a rush of noises that realize I had not been hearing: small insects, passing cars, the breeze in the leaves.

The same goes for sight. Anyone else who wears glasses or contacts will know what I am talking about. As you grow older and your vision changes, the prescription in your particular lenses is not correcting your sight enough, but you don't really notice, because you are used to them. Then an optometrist puts a new pair of glasses on you and the distant sign in the store suddenly leaps into clarity. Colors are sharper and richer. For a few hours (until you get used to the new pair), the world feels like it's been baptized with light.

C.S. Lewis compares the "new world" Narnia at the end of The Last Battle to a country seen in a mirror: better, richer, beckoning exploration, full of promise. I think one may also compare the experience of Heaven, insofar as the Bible tells us of an experience that we cannot fully understand until we get there, to taking off earmuffs or putting on glasses. Everything that we see, hear, touch, feel and think in this world will pale in comparison to that which comes after. We cannot feel the comparison empirically, but that is only because the dark glass has not yet been taken away.

When I look around at springtime, I experience wonderful things: fresh green leaves, colorful blossoms, and awakened birdsong. How wonderful it is to know that things will be so much better than this for those who love the Lord.