Through A Glass Darkly

1 Cor. {13:1} Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. {13:2} And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. {13:3} And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. {13:4} Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, {13:5} Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil; {13:6} Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; {13:7} Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. {13:8} Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. {13:9} For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 13:10} But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. {13:11} When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. {13:12} For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. {13:13} And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.


For now we see through a glass darkly.

Have you ever gone up to a dirty window and tried to peer through it? It's not easy is it? You search for a clean spot, things through the dirt are murky and you're not even sure what you're seeing in there a lot of things are like shadows at best.

Right now this is how life is for us.

We try to understand, we try to make the best of what this life has to offer us. Life is seldom what we think it should be and moments of it that do live up to that ideal are short lived and very few and far between. While we're trying to make the best of our lives living in some sort of contented state we are often thrown for a loop. There are ups and downs and inbetweens and none of them come with a guarantee that they'll last very long. We love when the downs are short-lived and the up long-lived, and it's nice when the inbetweens are set at a comfortable pace as well. Life however doesn't always give us what we want. Sometimes those downs last for a long, long time and sometimes those ups are very short and the span inbetween very short. Some people seem to live with that as a way of life. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter really because no matter how we live this life is just temporary. But that grand scheme of things can seem incredibly long until it become all that matters.

We need to remember that we see through a glass darkly.

When the glass is finally cleared we'll see that there are things that remain from the life we lived as we only saw darkly. Those things that will be more fully realized are - faith, hope, charity.

We are allowed glimpses of the life to come and they are all found through love and no other way.

Trying to understand is something natural to us, but knowing that right now we only see part of what life will really be like is a must. We can only understand so far, so much and then we need to live by pure faith, with hope, and love as the key to it all.

One day we'll be known and we'll know.

May God help us all to know and be known in love.

By the pure grace and mercy of Jesus Christ our Savior we need to grasp hold of hope and love and understand that we can't understand it all no matter how we crave to do so. There is a leap of faith we must possess. By His Mercy!

Amen.