Guilty

 

Guilty

Theology in the Trenches

By Kathleen Kjolhaug

She looked guilty to me! After all, her mug shot shown starkly as her hair was strewn helter-skelter. Sort of wild looking she was, eyes pictured all forlorn staring straight into the camera. Surprised and stunned was she as the flash of light greeted her with little warning. Yup, she sure looked guilty alright.

Trouble was, she was about my age and looked vaguely familiar. I stared hard trying to recognize the face before me. Hoping to see any light in her eyes—I couldn’t. Feeling sorry for the one being targeted by the camera, I looked more closely to identify the face which the camera had captured. Identification is important these days, and matching a name with the data given is important within the world in which we live.

“That will be $56 dollars,” came the blunt request from behind the counter.

“Really? Could you possibly retake it?”

“Why?” she asked. I think this picture of you looks great!”

“Thanks,” I mumbled. “But I’d like a retake.”

The one behind me in line looked upon the situation and smiled an odd smile as if she were surprised that anyone at this stage of the game actually cared. What would she know, I thought, it’s her first time even getting a license—this may be my last. That’s when I tried to engage the younger one in conversation, trying to justify my third try at a photograph that might be presentable upon my driver’s license.

“Really,” I said. “I’m not that vain. I just want to be able to recognize myself when I look at it for the next several years.”

I turned to the clerk with one final question. “And when did they not allow you to wear your glasses? I always wear glasses.”

“About two weeks ago they changed the rules, and now you have to take your glasses off.”

 As the jail was housed within the same building, I didn’t want to be sent on over, so I complied. Within seconds, several holes were pierced through my old license making it null and void. Soon, my new license will arrive and I’ll be able to pull that out, no doubt, along life’s journey as needed.

One thing we can be sure of, we won’t need identification when our time on earth has expired. In 1Cor. 13:12 it says, “For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now in part; then I shall be known fully, even as I have been fully known.” Thus, no photo I.D.’s in Heaven.  And who wouldn’t want to become a believer by just putting your faith in that fact—alone!  Amen.