It is fascinating watching my kids play. They love to pretend they are grown ups and mimic the adult world – such as going to store and paying for things, or playing teacher, or going out to eat at a restaurant, etc.

It is their way of preparing for the “real” world, I presume. In their minds, no doubt, the adult world is more desirable than theirs, and they long to grow up into it. But in the meantime, only in a cruder form, they mimic the world they’ve seen glimpses of.

You know where I’m going with this, don’t you? You and I, so called adults, are doing the same thing.

We intuitively know that there is a better world coming. Perhaps we have seen a glimpse of it and we know that that world is much more desirable than this world. Therefore, in some crude ways, we are preparing for the ultimate, real world to come. This is why we get married. This is why worship heroes (or football players). This is why we want to stay young forever. This is why we appreciate beauty. We are preparing for the real things as we mimic those things in this world. (And that is also why we never seem to get there. Nothing in this world satisfies….)

This thought came to me as I was reading Mary’s song in Luke 1. She is praising God for using a girl like her to be the vessel for the Messiah. But the way she is describing the acts of God seems to be exaggerated. Maybe she was over-excited, I thought. But then, this thought: “Perhaps she saw reality for what it is. On earth, we only see a tip of the iceberg. But in this case, she and other biblical characters saw the whole thing!”

“For now wee see in a mirror dimly, but then fact to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I haven been fully known.” 1 Cor. 13:12

Be sure to notice the beauty all around you today. Then, think, “That is just a tiny tiny glimpse of things to come.” Amen!

PH