Are You Looking at the World Through a Dark Glass Window?

When I was a girl our family went to church every week. Mum used to give my two sisters and me a scripture memory test on the way. When we’d answered enough correctly, she gave us a Mintie to suck, so our breaths smelled sweet as we talked with other church members.

‘What does 1 Corinthians 13:12 say?’ she’d ask, swiveling in her front passenger seat to check we were paying attention as we sat in a row in the back, knees together, hands in laps, hair sprayed with Curly Pet.

Looking back, I didn’t know what it meant, but I liked the imagery it invoked.

I’d imagine peering through a dark, smokey sheet of glass, until I could finally see what was on the other side. A garden, perhaps. Or a range of blue mountains, a fountain, a tangle of leafless tree branches. At first, I couldn’t see these things. Then, slowly, in my mind’s eye, the sheet of glass would turn clear, and I could.

I haven’t gone to church for years, but today I lift my old Bible from the bookshelf, dust it off, and turn to I Corinthians 13, regarded by Christians as the Love Chapter. I re-read the whole chapter, wondering if, now that I’m grown up, I will understand more fully what Paul meant.

Paul starts off by saying that if we don’t have love, we’re as distracting and annoying as a clanging cymbal, of no use to anyone, even if we pack our days with good deeds.

Then he lists some of the qualities of love:

Then he wrote in verse 10:  

In the context of the chapter, that which is perfect is Love.

Then he wrote about growing up (spiritually) and followed that with the scripture that appealed to my imagination as a child:

To me, one implication of these verses is that we see through a glass darkly when we don’t have love.

When we love, we see – face to face – what is really there in front of us.

It’s only when we embody love that we see clearly What Is.

When I don’t live with love as the basis of all I do, think and say, I am looking at the world through a dark glass, my view clouded by personal mental clutter and noise.

When I think about my repetitive, stale thoughts, I realise they’re not built on a foundation of love. They’re not kind, calm, patient, forgiving and so on. Most of the time I’m looking at the world through a smokey glass that is smeared with old thoughts, cultural conditioning and uncontrolled emotions.

It’s only when I embody love that I come face to face with Now.

This verse used to be one of my mother’s favourites.