Waiting to See Clearly
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away […] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” I Corinthians 13: 9-10, 12
If you’re anything like me, the last year and a half has thrown you for a crazy loop. Everything we knew to be “normal” about the world disappeared for a while, and we’ve all been trying to pick up the pieces and maintain some semblance of normalcy for quite some time.
To me, it’s been particularly exhausting. I’ve found myself for much of 2021 thinking Why does this feel so hard, even when things are “better” than they were last year? Even last semester? I think the exhaustion of all the unknown questions and concerns we carry on a daily basis has weighed me down.
One verse I love at the very end of 1 Corinthians 13. Paul has just spent the first part of the chapter talking about love (This is the “Love is patient, love is kind” section we often hear at weddings), but he ends the chapter talking about how faith, hope, and love are the things that will last into eternity, not knowledge and understanding, not special words.
Part of being human (and not God) means we don’t get to know and understanding everything as it plays out in our lives. And when our whole world feels uprooted, this is the last thing we want to admit. It’s so easy to look at hard situations and think they are hopeless, but the truth is that even if we don’t see it in this moment, God is using all things in our lives (even the craziness of the last year or two) to point us back to Him. A friend of mine once shared with me the phrase “For His glory and our good,” and it sticks with me to this day.
When things feel hard, and life feels upside down, we get to choose to look for God. It might feel like we’re looking through that dimly lit mirror Paul talks about, but one day, when all is said and done, we will be able to meet with Jesus and see not only Him, but how He used the things of our lives (both the hard and the wonderful) to make us more like him. For His glory and our good.