Wires crossed

The main light in my kitchen is broken. My father thinks it has something to do with some wires coming loose or becoming crossed, and he plans to fix it this week, but for the past six days I have been working in the dark. Well, not dark, but dim – especially at night.

Last night, I had this strange moment as I was making sure everything was clean before going to bed (I have late-night cereal eaters at my house). I was at first contemplating that my difficulty seeing in the dark was because of my advancing age. I have worn bifocals most of my life (except for the vain high school and college years when I refused but couldn’t read anything). I was laughing at this memory, when I thought of a scripture in 1 Corinthians. I originally learned it in the King James version, so that is what I recalled:

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.

It was such a great reminder for me of how hard it is to see and be seen – how much is truly unknown. Sometimes I put “seeing clearly” too high on my list, so I end up inventing truth that isn’t there in order to know the whole, instead of just sucking up that I understand in part. I think a lot of people do, because we love to have the whole story, and we love to be in the know.

I suspect there are more important things than clarity or knowing. Look at the verse in context (this time in NIV):

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Crystal clear.