Savoring our Unknowingness

 

Yesterday, we slowly savored the well-known words of Paul’s poem on God’s love.  He continued his prayer in 1 Corinthians 13 with these words:

⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see dimly, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.

For we know in part…

For we speak in partiality…

For our point of view is a view from a point…

For we see in a mirror dimly…

For you are not the same person you were five years ago…

For your understandings are not the same as you thought back in your 20s or 30s or 40s

For the 8-year-old version of ourselves still resides within us and sometimes we want to stomp our foot in protest…

For the “me” each of us hides (sometimes even from ourselves)…

For we long to swim in the sea of God’s love, but we are not sure we should dare to dive in…

Friends, remember that nothing separates us from the love of God.  Nothing.  Go ahead, dare to dive into these words as we did yesterday.  Slowly pray the words above.  Where did you predict with absolute certainty something would happen and when it didn’t you prayed no one would remember your words?  Where did you sound a bit childish this week?  Where did you believe you had the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, only to find out there were some pieces missing from your puzzle?  Where can you let God’s love enter your life fully to be fully loved for who you are?  May your meditations this morning be a blessing beyond words.  Amen.