“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face”
1 Corinthians 13:12a NASB
This verse inspired the title of one of my favorite albums—“A Mirror Dimly” by Citizens—and also offers one of the most profound hopes I've ever tried to wrap my head around. However, since we have pretty great mirrors in this century, the impact of the metaphor never actually hit me until this last year, when a significant amount of my relationships went through the wringer of video calls.
All the lagging, dropped calls and the amount of times I’ve said “what??” have brought me to the place where I can finally grasp the concept of being in a significant relationship with someone, but eagerly awaiting interacting with them in person, given the shortcomings of the medium we are currently getting by with.
A recent Stanford study on “Zoom fatigue” has shown that the conversations we have with professors, friends and family over video calls are more stressful for our brains than in-person conversations because we have to wait and wade through artificial buffering to interject, laugh or even see the facial expressions of the ones we love.
God programmed us to relate face-to-face, and even our best technology will never be able to truly replicate that design in a way that isn’t draining for us.
Photo by the Verge
At the same time, we are wearing masks over our mouths and noses, which strains our brains by taking away vital facial and tonal recognition tools. Our brains then have to work overtime to recognize people and read their body language during conversation, which sometimes makes time spent with others more draining than refreshing. (You may have been an introvert before, but now you have science backing you up!)
“Oh, that I could see your face / How I'm longing for that day”
Jon Guerra, “Kingdom of God”
How does all of this disconnected relational reality translate to our relationship with God, in this time when we’re also isolated from those He gave us to be in community with?
Due to this past year of restricted relationships, we can now understand even more deeply the coveted beauty of seeing someone you love face to face. Going back to 1 Corinthians, we see God right now as over a video call, complete with low-res video and spotty audio.
Someday, however, we'll see Him not just in HD, not even just in 4K (that our eyes can't even see or comprehend fully!), but face to face! Right now, it feels like His face has been covered with a mask, so that we can’t quite see His face or hear His voice well.
As much as I’ve been isolated from some of my relationships, I know that I’ve always been isolated from God by my sin. To restore this broken relationship, I look first at what I’ve done to overcome the obstacles between me and my friends in this microcosm of separation. We eat outside, send letters, call and make the most of the means of communication we’ve been given, even though they aren’t perfect.
Translating that to both our individual and corporate relationships with God, we overcome the distance and separation by meeting Him at His appointed times, as well as by creating our own. We commune with Him and His body on Sunday mornings, and we take time out of our days to talk to Him. We ask Him to meet us in our exhaustion when we physically cannot put forth the effort, knowing that His grace is not dependent on ourselves. We reread His love letter to us, the Book that tells us who He is, who Love Himself actually is, and what His face truly looks like. We cling to Him, knowing that His Spirit, the Comforter, is living inside us and working to grow us and mold us during this time.
“I don't want to look in a stranger's eyes
When I come into this place
Let me grow familiar with the lines
The lines upon your face”
Tenth Avenue North, “I Confess”
One of the greatest dangers to our Christian walk is growing complacent and confident enough to believe that we can handle life on our own. Living in an era of obvious discomfort helps us keep our eyes on God, and that might not be such a bad thing after all.