SWARTZ
CREEK MI – (ANS)- Being in the cartoon business for
most of my life, I am familiar with one of the standard clichés: someone
arrives in Heaven and, bing, there are the Pearly Gates; a bearded St Peter; a
giant guest register.

Easy to draw, hard to see. That is,
to see in the way the Bible describes our first day in Heaven. There is no
check-in procedure. No nervous waiting to hear whether the pencil we swiped in
fifth grade will keep us out. And St Peter — oh, he will be there, among the
multitudes we will want to meet. I burn with curiosity to, possibly, ask
questions of Abraham and Moses and St Paul and Luther. And Job! Augustine! And
countless martyrs who served the poor and the oppressed.

But the first thing that we will see
will be Jesus, from my reading. The Bible says He is seated at the right hand
of God’s throne, which might be so blinding white with glory as to obscure
other things; yet we will not be able to take our eyes from it.

So, I think visually. But we all
must, at least in this case. We imagine Heaven “through our minds’
eyes.”

There are some people for whom this
is easier than for the rest of us. Many believers who are blind have testified
that they can “see” a silver lining, so to speak, in their
sightlessness. For instance, there is the factor of other senses being
heightened. And there are the plausible cases for increased sensitivity to
other peoples’ challenges. And a practical understanding of dependence. These
things, the rest of us can imagine.

But many blind people have shared a
unique and tender — but passionate — thrill of expectation that when their
sight is restored, when they have their perfect bodies in Heaven, the first
thing that they see will NOT be the “Pearly Gates.” That was the
testimony of the blind hymn-writer (9000 hymns) Fanny Crosby; it is in the
title of a song by the blind gospel singer Terri Gibbs: “The First Thing
That I See Will Be Jesus.”

My good friend Anna Marie Spencer
sent me a video this week of the latest such person to manifest that powerful
faith. Ten-year-old Christopher Duffley was born blind and with severe autism.
His mother had been on drugs; he was up for adoption. Pretty tough odds. But at
the age of four he started to sing for Jesus, and has touched many people since
then. Some day, in Glory, he and Fanny Crosby and Terri Gibbs will look at each
other and share stories. I’d like to sketch that get-together.

In the meantime little Christopher
sings. Amazingly. He teaches the rest of us onlookers how to overcome, how to
triumph, how to… see. “Seeing,” after all, is most special in
relation to what we look at. Those of us who sometimes are handicapped by
taking good vision for granted, need to see that truth clearly.

This brief video is of little
Christopher Duffley singing “Open the Eyes of My Heart” in
Manchester, New Hampshire. My guess is that most of the eyes that were upon him
that evening not just saw, but wept, at this awesome performance.

Click: Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord

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About Rick Marschall

Rick Marschall is the author of more than 60 books and hundreds of
magazine articles in many fields, from popular culture (Bostonia
Magazine called him “perhaps America’s foremost authority on popular
culture”) to history and criticism; country music, television history,
biography and children’s books. He is a former political cartoonist,
editor of Marvel Comics, and writer for Disney comics. For 10 years he
has been active in the Christian field, writing devotionals;
co-authoring The Secret Revealed with Dr Jim Garlow; and writing a
biography of Johann Sebastian Bach for the “Christian Encounters”
series to be published by Thomas Nelson (2011). Rick is a former
Director of Product Development for Youth Specialties. He is recipient
of the 2008 “Christian Writer of the Year” award from the Greater
Philadelphia Writer’s Conference, and produces a weekly e-mail
devotional, “Monday Morning Music Ministry.” His e-mail address is: AmericaCiv@aol.com.

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