Every year for the past few years my mom has asked me for a Christmas wish list. On my list last year was a make-up mirror. And, of course, Santa brought me one.

One side of the mirror is just a normal mirror. The other enlarges the image by 8X. I thought that would be great since I normally wear glasses and can’t see well to apply eye makeup. But, the other day, as I sat there looking at my face, I could not believe what I was seeing.

I am OLD!

I have wrinkles, age spots, baggy eyelids, and skin tags. My skin is dry and flaking. And, for some unknown reason, at the age of 48, I still have zits!

Examining myself in the mirror was not a pleasant experience. But, it did remind me of a verse from scripture.

1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

When I look in a “regular” mirror, I get an incomplete (although a little more pleasant) picture of myself. When I look in the magnifying mirror, I am able to see so much more of who I really am, what I really look like.

It’s that way with so many spiritual things. Right now, it’s as if we are looking through the regular mirror. We get a glimpse of who God is, what He has done for us, and what life with Him will be like in Heaven, but we can’t see the fine details or the bigger picture. Our perspective is incomplete. But unlike the unfavorable image I see of myself, what God has in store for us is more beautiful and magnificent that we can even imagine.

Since Brandon died, I have thought about Heaven more than ever. I have thought about it not as just some vague place that we will one day go when our lives here are over. I have thought about it and studied on it as the real, physical, place it is. And I imagine what it is like, what Brandon is doing there now, who is getting to see and talk to, how he spends the days that stretch endlessly before him. But my knowledge is so insufficient, my thoughts so limited, my imagination so constrained. This human mind can only take me so far.

Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

So, as painful as it is, every now and again, I think I will still flip that mirror to the magnifying side. For no other reason, it will serve as this reminder.  If what I know, understand, and believe about Heaven is good, I can be certain that the reality is going to be oh so much better!