Day 21 – Looking Through the Glass Dimly

I need new glasses. I am near-sighted in one eye and far-sighted in the other, so without my glasses I have a hard time getting any sense of depth perception or sanity. But because each eye is good at something, I can manage for a short time without any glasses at all. I may not have the most accurate picture or the complete picture but I can usually make do fairly well over a short period of time.

I just got new windshield wipers, thankfully. Who knew how essential these were for living in Columbia, not just for dealing with rain, but to get rid of the yellow sheet of pollen on my windshield every morning.

Over the last few weeks as I have been on this fast, I am beginning to see just how often I get used to looking through the glass dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12) – of course I am not just talking about a dirty windshield or adjusting my eyesight without the right glasses. So many times, I get used to seeing situations, people, relationships through my limited perspective. Instead of seeing how things really are, I see what I want to see, or what I expect to see. It may not be the most accurate or complete picture, but I make do and fill in the rest with my best guess.

Even my best attempts and best guesses are often well off the mark. Here is a good example. I really struggled when I left my full-time job to go back to grad school full-time. Everyone else seemed to be at a different place in their lives and I didn’t seem to fit the mold. The other night, though, as I was celebrating my less than a month to go graduation with some friends, one of them talked about how hard it was for her in grad school; this was someone that I completely thought fit the mold and had an easier time of it than most. All I could see was how hard it was for me… and it never occurred to me that it was that hard for her too. I was seeing through the glass dimly.

At other times, where I have seen hostility, there has really been hurt. Where I have seen aloofness in coworkers or colleagues, it has been their loneliness and need for true friendship. Instead of hearing what someone is saying, sometimes I assume I know what it on their mind or heart. Instead of praying and seeking God’s will, I assume I can figure it out on my own. So many times I miss what is really there or what God is trying to show me, because I become content with my dim picture.

Then I think about the Chris Tomlin song, “Give Me Your Eyes.” Oh, how I want to see as God sees. How I want to have His compassion to see the hurt and needs of others. I want to have His perspective – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

I may never be able to see the full picture, but I want to see through His lenses, His love and His truth. The lenses that see us as we are, imperfect, clumsy, flawed people but that choose to view that through His incomprehensible and perfect love.