I love chocolate. I really love it. I love how it smells, I love how it looks, I love to cook with it, I love to make a ganache with melted chocolate and butter. I love dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate with stuff in it and chocolate covered stuff. I love chocolate ice cream, chocolate pudding, chocolate sauce, chocolate brownies, chocolate souffle, and chocolate bars. I went to Hershey, PA when I was 9 and I still vividly remember the vats of melted chocolate glistening as they were carefully churned. Even the air smelled like chocolate.
I once read a book about a girl who had never tried chocolate (that wasn't the point of the book, but it was the part that resonated most with me) and I just couldn't imagine such a thing. But let's try. Imagine the best Swiss chocolate truffle made with the greatest of care. It is the kind of chocolate you eat with your eyes closed, it's that good. Now imagine that I've eaten the chocolate and left the little wrapper behind. A girl who has never eaten chocolate before, sees the wrapper, reads that it is chocolate, and smells the wrapper. The smell is pretty wonderful, it smells sweet and dark and warm and the smell is close to the taste, but it is only the residual glory of the chocolate that once was.
The girl might think that this is what chocolate is. This glorious smell. But she has no idea of the greater glories this wrapper held. She doesn't really know what chocolate is like, she has this glimmer of leftovers, but has not experienced the textures of the chocolate or the nuances of the flavors or the way it slowly melts over your tongue and leaves a sweet coating in your mouth long after the chocolate is gone. She only knows this smell and thinks that that is what chocolate is like, there is no way she can imagine all of what she is missing. She couldn't even comprehend it until she has experienced it.
Today, my pastor said something interesting. He commented that all we have seen and known of God is only the afterglow of His true glory. It is a small fraction of the awesomeness of God. We have seen a lot of God's glory in the Bible and in history and in life - the pillar of fire, the protection of the Israelites throughout the ages, His coming to earth as a man, Jesus' death and resurrection. We have seen a lot! But like Moses, we have only seen the shadows of His glory. Christ is glorified in heaven with God and I can't even imagine what that is like. I know the difference between what I know now and what God's glory is really like is even far greater than the difference between smelling a chocolate wrapper and eating the chocolate inside, but it can help me appreciate what is to come. The same God who made this earth made that heaven, and He promises that it will be better than we can even imagine. I cannot wait to try my truffle.
