What We Shall Be Has Not Yet Been Revealed

Christmas Weekday

By Melanie Rigney

El Greco
[Public domain ],
via Wikimedia
Commons

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)

All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God. (Psalm 98:3CD)

“The one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.” (John 1:33-34)

Piety

And I don’t know where I’m going but I know it’s going fast; Love’s the only thing that’s keeping us alive, oh this is my, this is my, this is my revelation. (“Revelation,” Sons of Sylvia)

Study

What did or do you want to be? You probably have a list like mine: As a child, I wanted to be a home economics teacher. That evolved to a lawyer when I realized I didn’t have the patience to teach. The law plan’s death knell came with my LSAT scores. I was a good editor and an okay writer, so I ended up going down that path. It wasn’t a dream, never had been.

Flash forward, and after more than thirty years away from faith, all of a sudden I’m writing devotionals for a whole bunch of places (thank you, Tony, for giving me my start), books about returning Catholics and women saints, and most recently, an essay about Scripture that changed my life (Isaiah 64:7, in case you’re interested). Is it what I thought I’d be doing? Absolutely not. Is it easy? Seldom. Is it enjoyable? Depends on your definition. Is it what the Lord wants me to be doing? Not a doubt in my mind. Is it what He’ll want me to be doing a year from now? I’ll let him worry about that.

The author of 1 John had it right. What we shall be has not yet been revealed; we’ll find that out when the Lord desires. In this life, our plans and schemes and dreams are worth little if they run counter to His plan for us. Sure, we can go down a different path, a path that takes us away from purification. But it’s likely to leave us unhappy… and orphaned.

Action

Ask the Lord to make His saving power clear to you. Watch and listen.