“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.” (1 Corinthians 13:12). All of us have endured disappointments, hardships, and traumas that have stained and darkened our view of our Heavenly Father and His love for us. None of us can see with perfect clarity and transparency the light of our Father's countenance. We may be tempted to conclude that because the glass is dirty we cannot see. Because we have witnessed horrors in our own life and in the world around us there can be no light. If we focus only on the stains and the pain and the darkness, then we will miss the light. If there were truly no light at all, then we would see nothing. The fact that we can see our pain and our anguish means that light is still making it through the glass. Maybe we can't see very much light, and certainly if we only look at the darkness we can fool ourselves into thinking that there is only darkness, but we can still see darkly. When the glass is completely clear, it is easy to forget that the glass is even there and we can instead focus on what is on the other side. But when the glass is partially or even mostly covered, it is easy to forget about what's on the other side and to focus instead on the glass itself. When the light from the other size has been reduced to a pinhole, and all of the rest of the glass is as black as hell itself, it is easy to believe more in the glass and its blackness and less in the light coming through and especially the source of that light. When all we have is that pinhole of light, we can still see darkly, for now. With time and faith and hope and the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ, the darkness will be scraped away. We will see that even though our pain and our confusion and our doubts and fears prevented us from seeing more than the tiniest sliver of God's light and His love for us, nevertheless the intense brilliance of His love was shining down on us even through the darkened glass. I hope we never let the darkness of the glass cause us to forget the reality of God's light and His love for us. And I hope that we will be constantly in the process of cleaning our side of the glass through the process of repentance and that we will plead constantly for the Lord's forgiveness and mercy so that He may wipe clean the other side of the glass, or, in other words, the things in our lives that are outside of our control and that nevertheless block us from the light.
