Psalm 119:129-136

Psalm 119:129-136 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Think of the darkest place you've ever been.  Maybe it's in a basement with the lights turned out.  Maybe you hid in a closet during a game of hide-and-seek.  Perhaps you've been out in the wilderness during a new moon, far from any lights.  Sometimes, I'll help out and put Charlotte to bed, and when I walk out of the dark nursery into the light, I blink and blink as my eyes adjust to the kitchen lights.  It's not the most brilliant lighting in the world, but it's still blinding due to the contrast.
  Thinking of that contrast, imagine what it would be like for God's face to shine upon you.  Here we are, surrounded by sin and brokenness, having grown used to our earthly lives.  God's face, the blinding brilliance that we cannot even begin to describe (In 1 Timothy 6 it says that God dwells in unapproachable light), would be a stark contrast -- we'd be unable to see, unable to understand, unable to blink our eyes enough to adjust to the fullness of God's face.
  And so we do not see God's face this side of heaven.  When we die and our baptisms are complete, we are no longer trapped in the sin of this world.  We pass through the veil of death and enter into eternal life, and we have new eyes with which to see, eyes capable of grasping the fullness of God, grace upon grace.
  In the meantime, we pray for the ability to see the world as God sees it.  We pray for the wisdom to see our neighbors and co-workers and friends and enemies the same way that God does, so that we might begin to love them the way that God does.  In so doing, when we act out this love, we give people a glimpse -- we give them tiny windows so they can catch a glimpse of the Gospel love, so they can be compelled forward to discover more about the God who is pure and brilliant, who is so good that we cannot approach him without being first covered by the grace of Jesus Christ, who comes willingly to enable us to be worthy of approaching the throne with confidence because we have been made new in Christ!