It's been a sad week. A dear friend lost her husband to cancer this week. John was too young as so often is the case. And as I have sat here this week, too far from my friend to provide the physical comfort of a good solid hug and much needed love, I keep coming back to a verse I fell in love with when I was about 8 to help hold myself together - I Corinthians 13:12.
So many people look to this chapter for the "Love" verses - "Love is patient, Love is kind..." which Love is and Love should be, but this is not what I see in this chapter, the verse I love is often over looked...and let me preface- that I don't know that my interpretation is in line with any scholars on the topic, its just that - my interpretation...
"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face;
For now I know in part, but then I will know fully,
Just as I also have been fully known."
I Corinthians 13:12
Taken in pieces here is how I see this passage -
"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face": I can't see God's reflection clearly in my life, but I know He's there. I see reflections of Him in my actions and reactions. More importantly, this verse promises me that one day I WILL see Him face to face!!
"For now I know in part, but then I will know fully."
I only can understand bits right now of God's plan, small bits at that. But things like why a dear friend's husband is diagnosed with brain cancer so young or why I never really got a chance to know my father-in-law before he passed away or why so many loved ones have had miscarriages or why two of my friends have lost their father's to Picks disease (not so rare a disease in my circle) are so much harder to grasp. One day, when I am face to face with God, as promised in the first part, I will know and understand these things, Fully. And in that lies my trust that there is a greater plan.
But the last line is what seals it..."Just as I also have been fully known" God knows me. He knows you too. And elsewhere in the bible He promises to never test us beyond our capacity (Karin's paraphrasing). These trials that come our way are not meant for cruelty or because somebody did something, they are part of God's greater plan that I can't grasp just yet, but I have a greater faith in God than I do my own limited understanding, that part I do know now.
30+ years later this verse still grounds me.
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