1 John 3:2
Dads
are in a strange position for nine months in their lives. Their child is
conceived and they become a father. And yet for nine months they don’t get any
of the benefits of being a father. They don’t get the experience of being
pregnant, and the women all say, “Why not!” They don’t have the morning
sickness, the lower back pain, they ever increasing awkwardness of mobility
with a twenty pound bowling ball strapped to their midsection.
But
they also don’t get to feel the little flutters and small kicks that signal in
a tangible way that there is someone growing inside them. Those become almost
constant reminders of the other’s presence as the time draws near. Moms get
extra time being a mom.
What
moms eat during pregnancy affects their joint baby. Dad’s diet makes no
difference. If dad is stressed at work, baby doesn’t feel it. But when mom is
stressed, baby gets bathed in those hormones. Mom’s life touches baby’s. Mom is
already being a mom. Dad just sits on the sidelines. He already is a dad, but
he really doesn’t yet get any of the benefits of it. But the moment birth takes
place, dads can step up to the plate and fully participate. Their fatherhood
has been fully realized. That little one has a dad in a new sense, one that has
whiskers and smiles.
This
already but not yet state is a condition that John talks about in our text.
There are parts of our eternal life that we get to experience in only a small
way while we walk here on earth. We are God’s children when we walk in the
light as He is in the light. When we continue to trust in His work on our
behalf, the work done to cancel our sin debt, then we become His children. But
there are still more benefits of that family connection that we don’t fully
understand or experience right now. We only have limited knowledge of that next
experience.
But
just like fathers are fathers and then become fathers when their child is born,
so the moment Jesus returns we who are children of God will become children of
God in a fuller way. The reality of our identity will be more fully exposed.
Something of our experience will change. We remain children of God, just as we
are now already.
But
one thing will be different: we will see Jesus face to face. What we have taken
by faith based on the eyewitness accounts and the confirmation of the Holy
Spirit, we will at that moment know in a new way. We will see Him. Just like
the father who gets to see the ultrasound image of their child in the womb, we
have glimpses of Jesus in the Scripture. But we will have all the details
filled in when we see Him face to face.
That
is going to be some day! Are you ready?