O Lord my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you, and where and how to find you. ~St. Anselm
At present all we see is the baffling reflection of reality; we are like people looking at a landscape in a small mirror. The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face! At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth, but the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God now knows me!
(1 Corinthians 13:12 Phillips Translation)
Today’s Squint
The trouble was, I couldn’t see. For seven years I hid my nearsightedness. Too vain to wear glasses, I faked it–staking out front row seating, not because I enjoyed teacher attention. Small, well-lit classrooms helped delay the inevitable.
With college came larger and darker auditoriums where even first rows were far from the chalkboard action. After a long-avoided visit to the optometrist, I emerged onto the sidewalk, contact lenses stinging my eyes, and gasped, amazed. I almost grabbed an innocent bystander and yelled, “Trees have leaves!” Not vague clouds of green fuzziness, but individual, sharply defined foliage. I gaped in wonder, drunk with the arboreal splendor around me.
Tomorrow’s Vision
The time will come when our blinded eyes will be opened. Some of us will weep in sorrow at the waste, as the perishable objects of our earthly focus fade from view. Some of us will gaze with joy at what we always strained to see–with 20/20 vision we will know God as we have always been known.
What if the clearness of our vision then depends on where we fix our eyes today?
Look And See
I am not asking you to make many reflections, to produce grand and subtle considerations with your intellect, or to feel deep devotion.
I only ask you to look at Him.
Who can prevent your turning the eyes of your soul (but for an instant, if you can do no more) on our Lord?
You are able to look on many ugly things, then can you not gaze upon the fairest sight imaginable?
Your bridegroom never takes His eyes off you!
He has borne with many offenses and much unworthiness in you, yet these have not sufficed to make Him turn away. Is it much to ask that you should sometimes shift your gaze from earthly things to fix it on Him?
You will find that He suits Himself to whatever mood you are in. He longs so keenly for our glance that He will neglect no means to win it.
~Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Where are you looking these days?
This is post sixteen of our Lent To Love: A Return to the Source series on 1 Corinthians 13. Why not subscribe today and join us on the journey? Here’s a link to my guest writer’s website I forgot to include in my last post: ginnyyttrup.com.
Photograph by Melanie Hunt
