Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.
– 1 John 3:2
If you are a person who has trusted in Jesus for your salvation, then you are currently God’s child. That is not a hopeful, one-day reality, that is an assured, today reality. However, that reality hasn’t fully worked its way into all we are. If everyone who trusted Jesus grew a few inches or gained new abilities, it would be awesome! However, the truth is God’s children don’t look any different from people who are still running from God, and sometimes they don’t even feel all that different. This is why John reminds us that although we are God’s children now, what we will be has not yet been seen. In other words, what we will be is going to be drastically different from what we are now.
C.S. Lewis describes this future transformation powerfully in his essay entitled, “The Weight of Glory.” He’s talking here about how we should look at our neighbors, but as you read, consider that this too is what you will one day be…
“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, to some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
So, as children of God, what we will be, is everlasting splendors, the likes of which, if people saw you as you one day will be, they would be tempted to worship!! Wow! Now, go live like the Son or Daughter of God that you are.
Josh Rose
Discipleship Pastor