Face to Face

We are driving down a road we travel on about twice a week, when my youngest son announces
in a matter of fact tone,
"This is Mexico." 

I reply, "No, honey, we are in the USA."

"No," he insists, "This is Gulf Mexico!"

Why would he think that? 
I rack my brain trying to figure out how he heard about the Gulf of Mexico,
as he has never been to Mexico or the Gulf of Mexico,
 and just why he insists this is it.
Earlier that day, he had played for a long time with a talking globe
making it sing about the oceans and animals.
Maybe he heard about the Gulf of Mexico then. 

Perhaps that talking toy globe is teaching him a thing or two after all, I think. 

I'm rudely awaken from my momentary pondering with
"I saw the gulf. 
It's GULF MEXICO!" 
He's shouting it now. 
He's frustrated that I don't understand. 
We are driving down the road, and I cannot take my eyes off the road to turn and look at him.
He communicates better when we can look at each other.
Then, I can understand the gestures, nuances, and meanings of the words he is trying to communicate.
I often say to him something like, "Let me see your eyes" or "Look at me, Honey."

Now, at this moment,
there is no chance for that.
The traffic is thick on this main road.
I cannot turn around.
We cannot look into each other eyes.

Yet,

somehow
a thought
occurs to me...

we had passed the golf course.
Maybe, just maybe 
Golf = Gulf
in his four year old vocabulary.
 
I attempt to explain...
 "You see the Gulf OF Mexico
(I stress the 'of' as if that tiny word will help explain it all to him)
 is a body of water.
  The golf you saw was a game played with clubs and a ball.
 The two words just sound the same. 

 Do you understand?" 

"I don't understand," he sighs. 
"This looks like Mexico."
I know he's frustrated, because he still doesn't understand.
I tell him we'll discuss it when we get home.
We are almost there.
Then I won't have to drive and explain.
We'll be face to face,
and I will be able to see his eyes...


And I know how he feels.

For I see in part,

I know in part,

and I have to wait

until I am home

in heaven

face

to

face

with Jesus

to know

and understand

fully.

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face;
now I know in part, but then I will know fully
just as I also have been fully known."
I Corinthians 13:12 (NASB)



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This post has been linked to Word Filled Wednesday at Internet Cafe Devotions
and iFellowship at Seeds of Faith.
Both are wonderful places to fellowship and be encouraged from God's Word.