Revelation 22:1-5: in context

Near the very end of scripture, John is shown the city of God in its glory. A river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb; on either side grows the tree of life, bearing fruit every month, its leaves for the healing of the nations. There will be no more curse; the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no night, no need of lamp or sun, for God himself will be their light, and they will reign forever.

At the heart of this final vision is a promise that gathers up the whole longing of scripture: they will see his face. Throughout the Bible, to see God's face directly had been impossible for mortal eyes; Moses was told that no one could see God's face and live. The whole story has been of a God who dwells with his people yet remains, in some measure, hidden, encountered through signs and shadows and mediators. And here, at the end, the veil is gone: they will see his face. The distance is closed, the hiddenness ended; God's people will behold him directly, face to face, in unmediated presence. This is the culmination of everything, the great hope of the human heart fulfilled, to see God himself. And around it the vision gathers the reversal of all that was lost: the tree of life, barred since Eden, restored and freely bearing fruit; the curse, laid on the world since the fall, gone; the night, and every darkness, ended, for God himself is the light. The story that began with a garden lost ends with a city where the tree of life grows again, the curse is undone, and God's people see his face. There is no greater hope than this, and it is the hope held out to all who are Christ's: to see his face at last, in a world made new, where the curse is no more and the light is God himself.

Is the hope of seeing God's face the thing I am finally living toward, the closing of every distance, the end of all hiddenness, and does that promised sight, in a world where the curse is undone and God himself is the light, draw and steady me now?