Yesterday, I saw my students’ faces for the first time. We’d been gathering together in masks for our in-person classroom at Penn State, but after the Thanksgiving break, PSU transitioned to all virtual instruction.
So when the zoom meeting began, we finally gathered and saw each other.
It was a joyful and peculiar experience. So many of us laughed and said, “I didn’t think you looked like that! I imagined a different face altogether!”
It was wonderful and new. We had met only part of each other through our voices and physical bodies; without the face, we missed the complete picture. Ah! Now I see you! I really see you!
I suddenly found myself so thankful for that nose or that smile, that chin, and those cheeks. I see you now. What a blessing to come out from behind the mask. I’d never been so thankful for a face before.
Maybe heaven will be like this. We’ll gaze at each other and say, “I only knew part of you–not the whole, real you. Now I see you.”