Paul speaking to the Corinthians said, “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) This basically means that whilst on this earth we can only have a poor glimpse of the Kingdom of God, as if we are looking into a dark window or mirror (the ‘glass’) where the reflection is very poor—in other words, we do not get a full picture of what the Kingdom of God is actually like. However, when we die and our souls are released, then, when we meet God face to face, we will know the Kingdom of God fully— “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known,” says Paul, just a few words later. There is a story about a couple who lived in a house overlooking several neighbors back yards. While eating breakfast one morning, they were looking out their window and noticed a neighbor hanging her clothes out on her clothesline. The wife commented on how dingy her wash appeared and thought that someone ought to teach her how to launder her clothes so that they would get cleaned properly and appear whiter. A few days later while eating breakfast the same neighbor was hanging her wash out again, only this time the woman commented on how much whiter the woman’s clothes appeared to be. The husband said, “Honey, the only difference is that I got up early this morning and washed our windows.” Things are not always the way they appear to us. Flaws we see in others are often our own.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then shall I know even as also I am known. Paul was referring to all that we do now in this life is done with only a partial understanding, a blurred image as though we were seeing through a glass darkly.
I remember thinking much differently in my youth than I do now. Even though youth have much better vision, yet, after more then three quarters of a century and having very poor eyesight, I see many things much more clearly because of my knowledge, experience and, I would like to think, my wisdom.
The above metaphor can refer to both spiritual and physical aspects of life. As a youth I knew very little of spiritual things, nor did I know very much about their various and numerous, orthodox containers (churches) but, yet, I had twenty/twenty vision. As a youth I knew very little about the worldly things even those that I could see clearly because I had twenty/twenty vision. I remember hiking with two of my sons a few years ago before I realized how bad my eyes were getting, based on my age.
We noticed some hawks flying several hundred feet above us. I mused out loud that it looked like there were four of them. I was quickly corrected by my sons that there were only two of them. I took another look and I said that I still saw four of them. My old eyes with their astigmatism were seeing double at that distance. I acknowledged to my boys that there were probably two of them.
Because we all see through a glass darkly, it makes us suspicious of eyewitness testimony. Men have been imprisoned based on eyewitness testimony only to find out some years later that another was guilty. There are many things that may cause the glass we see through to be dark. Not only the fact that it may need to be cleaned, but our past experience and our personal prejudices will cause us to see through it darkly. We should be slow to criticize and slow to accuse our neighbors because, after all, we see through our glass darkly.