Puzzling Reflections

I Corinthians 13
 

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages^[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.^[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Today I see incompletely. Today I wrestle with this partial view of God, myself and others. Today, I have a choice... I can choose to love. Only God knows how this all turns out. Only He can inform it. I lay my hands open to receive. In the process, I relinquish the things holding me back from receiving His BEST for me. I look at idols in my life for what they are--a path to control, a path to being "like God." He replaces those things with faith, trust, hope and WORSHIP. He shows me HOW GOOD He really is. He reveals His heart for me and invites me into deeper relationship and discovery of the abundant life He has for me. 

Today I see incompletely, but with hope... One day these partial things won't matter. I will see in full clarity all He is, all I am and the beauty of how those things have worked together for His glory and my good. Today, I forgive. Today, I posture my heart in surrender, humility and obedience to His way, His timing. Today, I walk in freedom. Today I walk in love.