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The First Thing Bartimaeus Saw
Contributed by Dr. Larry Petton on Jan 30, 2020 (message contributor)
Think of what Bartimaeus saw when he received his sight! Think of the wonders of seeing for the first time a crowd of human beings just like himself, the walls and palm-tree groves of Jericho, the sky, so blue above him, and the hills of Moab in the distance. But that was not the first thing that he saw.
The first thing that he saw was the face of Jesus, the face of the one who had healed him. And for you and me, too, that will be the greatest of all sights. When we awake from the dream men call life, when we put off the image of the earthy and break the bonds of time and mortality, when the scales of time and sense have fallen from our eyes and the garment of corruption has been put off, when this mortality has been put on immortality and this corruption has put on incorruption, when we awaken in the everlasting morning, that will be the sight that will stir us and hold us.
Oh, there will be many wonderful sights there—the sea of glass mingled with fire; the great white throne; the river of the water of life; and the tree of life, that yielded her fruit every season; and those marvelous twelve gates, every gate a pearl; and those marvelous foundations of the walls, garnished with all manner of precious stones; and the faces of the patriarchs and the prophets, the apostles and the martyrs; and the faces of those we have loved long since and lost awhile. But most wonderful of all will be that face into which Bartimaeus looked that morning outside the gate of Jericho, after his eyes had been opened—the face of him who loved us and redeemed us, and washed us in his own precious blood.
Face to face with Christ, my Savior,
Face to face—what will it be,
When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me?
Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by!
Only faintly now, I see Him,
With the darkling veil between,
But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen.
What rejoicing in His presence,
When are banished grief and pain;
When the crooked ways are straightened,
And the dark things shall be plain.
Face to face! O blissful moment!
Face to face—to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ who loves me so.
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