Re:Verse passage – Philippians 1:20-26 (day six).
“Right now, we see things as if we are looking through a dark piece of glass, but then we will see face to face.” -Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:12 (my paraphrase)
“For me, living is Jesus, and dying is gain.” -Paul, Philippians 1:21 (my paraphrase)
When I was a boy living in Lome, Togo, my parents bought an old but sizable telescope from a German man. It came in a large hefty solid wood box with latches on the side. Included with the telescope were a set of filters; one was used to look directly at the Sun. By the looks of it, it was virtually black. It was so dark a filter you couldn’t see anything at all looking through it, but when we put it over the lens of the telescope we could look directly at the Sun. It was marvelous.
With the filter, it was a marvel to behold the glory of the Sun; we even could identify sun spots on its surface. Of course, looking at the Sun without the filter would be dangerous; you can only handle the Sun filtered. You can’t really see it in all its glory.
That’s what Paul meant by dying is gain. He longed for the unfiltered gaze into the glory of the Son. He longed for the unfiltered life, and it came by dying (and resurrecting into new life).
