THIS SIDE OF THE GLASS

This morning I find myself at an all too familiar place. Another dear friend has left us and I’m asking the same question…WHY? Yes, I’ve asked this many other times before and yet I get the same reply. Silence. Another spouse is left incomplete. Another child having to face the future without a parent. Friends sitting speechless as the memories began to flood their minds. Though I am a preacher of thirty plus years, here I am again trying to figure out what is obviously way beyond my comprehension. I never get a current word in times like these, but somehow I’m always taken back to a past word. Something already spoken or should I say, written.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:2 For now we see through a glass, darkly. The word dark stood out to me in this verse. This side of the glass is dark. We know that nothing is revealed in the darkness. No matter how long you look at something, you’ll never be able to figure out what it is, because there is no revelation in the darkness. Sure, you can guess, but you don’t really know. After years of hurting and trying to understand, I realize that I’m living on this side of the glass, and it’s too dark to understand. Everything we know is from what we see from this side of the glass. Our perspectives comes from here, our questions come from here and our lack of understanding comes from here.

However, if we could only see what it looks like from the other side, it would change everything for us. I think Paul understood it and that’s why the rest of this verse gives us hope. “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.” Can you just imagine what it looks like from the other side of the glass? You and I can’t comprehend it, but those that have gone on before us, see things so much differently than we do. It’s not dark over there. No shadows, no clouds and no questions. Of course that’s only my perspective from this side of the glass. All I know is, eyes have not seen and ears have not heard.

So until that time, we remain on the dark-side. The side where we hurt and cry and wonder why things happen the way they do. It’s an all too familiar place and God knows we’ll ask all kinds of questions from here. We will hold each other in these incredible times of pain, but maybe, just maybe, we can remind ourselves we’re living on this side of the glass.