Some things are just better in person.
Like a sunrise.
I can pass a photo of a sunrise on Facebook with the caption, “What a beautiful morning!” and be totally unimpressed with the tepid reproduction of beauty.
But to step out your own front door on a chilly morning with resplendent glory shining through the clouds, shimmering in shades of rich red, magenta, orange, and yellow…
to see the morning dewdrops shimmering on the grass like millions of diamonds as the sun rises over the trees…
to feel the breeze raise goosebumps on your arm as it rustles through the leaves…
Well, you’d just have to be there.
Baby laughs are also better in person.
Their chins wrinkle into their necks, their eyes crinkle up into shiny buttons, and their whole body shakes as they giggle and flap their arms. You can’t help sweeping them up and kissing them in all their ticklish spots to get one more trickle of laughter out of that softy, squishy, adorable little belly. A photo just doesn’t do it justice.
Romance.
It’s a lot better in person too.
The best on-screen kiss, the sweetest love-story, and the most heart-tugging film ending doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing.
You have to hold hands through thick and thin…
Know the dance of melting into each other’s arms, and breathing in the scent of their skin when you meet in the kitchen after a long, hard day…
Choose to see the good over, and over, and over again in a thousand tiny ways until you don’t really know where they end and you begin.
No longer the totally separate entities of “YOU” and “I”, but a melded collection of years of “WE” and “US”.
One flesh.
One Other is better in person.
Jesus.
Here on earth we read about His character, beauty, and love. It’s written on fragile pages and glued into leather Bible covers.
We hear His glory and feel the rush in our hearts in soul-tugging sermons or incredible worship songs.
We touch the edges of His garment as we follow His lead in reaching out to the least of these, the refugees, homeless, helpless, needy, lost, tired, struggling, overwhelmed, and anxious among us.
But face to face?
With my Savior?
Well, I can only imagine the glory.
1 Corinthians 13:9 says “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
Have you ever stepped out of a hot shower and peered into a foggy mirror? Steam swirls and beads of condensation appear so that even when you wipe the mirror, all you get is a glimpse of a blurry face before the glass becomes dim again.
On earth we are looking at Jesus through that foggy mirror. We glimpse His glory here and there on our journey, but to clearly see face to face? We have to wait for heaven and oh boy.
It’s going to be better in person.
In person we will know the Lord fully, as we have already been fully known since the beginning of time.
Face to face.
Walking and talking with my Savior.
It’s going to be SO. MUCH. BETTER. in person.
