Jennifer Rothschild on When Faith Becomes Sight

I’ve walked many miles in the dark, yet my eyes are drawn to the place where my faith will become sight. Over the years in blindness, I’ve held the arms of friends, family, and strangers to navigate the unending darkness. I’ve held tightly to my faith and been held by God’s faithfulness through every dark day. And I’ve also held a white cane. I have definitely walked by faith and not by sight … in a very literal sense.

I’ll never forget how Mike, my mobility instructor, finished up my first lesson of learning to walk in the dark. I was 17 years old when I got my first white cane, and with it I got Mike, the amazing guy who taught me how to use it. On that first lesson, he showed me how to navigate safely and helped me gain some independence. He walked me around my neighborhood, pointing out how to hold the cane, how to tap it, and how to anticipate all the rough places I would encounter.

Sweaty from the Miami heat, and probably from the stress I felt, we turned the last corner toward my home. He paused and asked, “Do you smell it?”

I stopped, breathed in my surroundings. I did smell it. A lush bush of blooming hibiscus was right there on the corner near my home.

“When you smell the flowers,” Mike said, “you know you’re almost home.”

Do you smell the fragrance of heaven wafting along the path you walk?

It’s your reminder that home, your Father’s house, is not far away. In fact, it’s just around the corner — maybe one heartbeat or perhaps millions of heartbeats away — but it’s your certain reality when you’re in Christ. Heaven is when your faith becomes sight.

Until then, we walk by faith. So, how do we walk well, especially when the road of faith can get rough, and we can get weary of the wait?

Walking and Waiting

Biblical waiting is an active anticipation and a certain expectation that it’s just a matter of time until God’s promise is fully realized. It’s in contrast to what we often assume waiting is — a passive and pointless posture where we just buy time, spend time, or waste time. Biblical waiting puts us in position to experience complete joy in the meantime, even before the wait is over

Psalm 62:1 shows us how to wait well, and it’s more about the who than the how: “I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.”

Because God is a healer, deliverer, and prayer-answerer, sometimes we get caught up with just waiting to get the healing, deliverance, or the prayer answered. To wait well as we walk by faith though, we wait, ultimately, on God alone, not things from Him. That kind of waiting is a posture of trust that grants us peace and stability. When we wait on God, we are not greatly shaken in this life, even if the walk is hard and the wait is long.

I have waited for healing from God for years. Yet, an innocent comment from my five-year-old son Clayton helped clarify what is worth waiting for. He said, “Mom, I don’t think God will heal you here on earth, because, if He did, you might love earth more, and heaven is best.”

Clayton’s words were poignant and remind me that God, God alone, is worth the wait. My eyes will see Him someday, even if my eyes never see on this earth.

When our faith becomes sight in heaven someday, we will realize that God alone was worth everything; He is worth the wait. Of all the things He gave us, could have given us, or all the things we wished He’d given us, we’ll realize that those things weren’t as important as we thought.

So, let’s wait well on God alone and seeing Him face to face someday

“While we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works” (Titus 2:13-14).

Let’s be people who wait well, becoming less about getting what is good from God, and more about doing what is good for and through Him.

And when you walk by faith, your faithfulness will be affirmed when your faith becomes sight.

When the Wait Is Over

For the believer in Christ, heaven is our promise, and certain life after death with Jesus. Someday the wait will be over and the walk of faith will end. For “we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). We will step fully into our glorious unending — our faith finally sight.

For now, though, we walk by faith on this side of eternity, not by sight. In the darkness of blindness, on an ordinary Monday, every moment of this life, we walk by faith.

But there will be a day when the wait is over, when the fragrance of those flowers is so strong
that we will know we’re almost home. The door we’ve been knocking on our whole lives will finally be opened to us, and we will see Jesus face to face.

So, as you navigate through bright and dark days here, hold on to your faith and thank God that you’re held by His faithfulness. The shadows you may face and feel here — sickness, uncertainty, stress, sorrow — will all lift in light of the One you will clearly see, when your faith becomes sight! “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).

This article originally appeared in the January 2025 issue of HomeLife Magazine.

Heaven Bible Study

In this 7-session video-based study, Jennifer Rothschild explores the subject of Heaven from a biblical perspective. She will separate what’s true about Heaven from what’s based on legend, media depictions, and hopeful guesses. As you walk through the study, you’ll not only gain a deeper understanding of what God has prepared for His children, but also learn how to live with confidence today as you look forward to the glorious unending that awaits. Don’t just wonder about Heaven—embrace it with a faith that turns anticipation into excitement and peace.

ABOUT JENNIFER ROTHSCHILD

Jennifer Rothschild is the author of many books and Bible studies, including Amos, Take Courage, Psalm 23, Hosea, and Me, Myself, and Lies. Jennifer is a C. S. Lewis junkie, an obsessive audiobook listener, a dark chocolate lover, and she drinks way too much strong coffee. She’s been blind since age 15 and says the greatest lesson she’s learned in the dark is that it doesn’t have to be well with your circumstances to be well with your soul. Jennifer is a boy mom who lives in Missouri with her husband, whom she affectionately calls her very own Dr. Phil.