Then and Now

In the Easter Earthquake study, Harnish quotes Karl Barth regarding death:

Now we see in a mirror  dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith  hope and love abide, there three; and the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:12-13)  Barth said, "Because God's grace has come to help us in our misery thorough our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....We...stand with him at the boarder where the now and the then touch each other.

See the thens and nows? For us, who stand on this side of death - on the "then" side - death is horrible. It means loved ones are gone, it means how we see life comes to an end. I think for God it is not the same. For God, it is a line between the then and the now.