It’s been so wonderful to see so many of you face-to-face recently. It takes a great deal of self-control not to give you a hug.
Online Church has been good – and it will continue to serve many of you well as you stay home for a while longer. But I found it such a joy to be together in person last weekend! (On 14th June 2020 we held our first face-to-face services since the COVID-19 pandemic closed churches in early 2020).
Paul speaks in this way about longing to be face-to-face with our Lord Jesus Christ when he returns or when we are taken home to him in 1 Corinthians:
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:9-13
In this world we experience pain and joy and we strive to know God and understand what life is about. No matter what joy we experience in this life, no matter how rich our relationships, no matter how wonderful the blessings we receive from God in this life, it’s like reflections and shadows compared to the joy, relationships and blessings that await us in the life beyond! Then we will be with our Lord Jesus Christ face-to-face!
Yours in Christ,
Ben
