The Apostle Paul used beautiful metaphors of glass twice in his letters to the Corinthians in referring to what and how we see. The first is in First Corinthians where he says “through a glass darkly” and the second in Second Corinthians where he says “with open face beholding as in a glass.”
Through a Glass Darkly
“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 KJV
Have you ever lifted a glass Coca-Cola bottle up to your eyes like binoculars? If not, grab any kind of jar or bottle and give it a try. Try different colored glass as well and see how it gives a different perspective to what you see. What you see is distorted from a little to a lot according to the thickness and other factors of the glass. You see the objects, but they are blurred and unclear, rather than the clarity you have when face to face with the same object. While the Corinthian text is speaking present verses future seeing the principal is the same in our present perspectives of God seen through our own glass.
If we were fish on the water side of the lake’s surface looking up, we would see only the blurred and fuzzy shapes of the world passing by in the expanse of the other side above us and outside the water. We could only guess at its meaning and imperfectly describe with words its Life from the distorted and fragmented pieces we perceive.
Open Faced Beholding
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV
If you could speak fluent fish and your job today was to explain water to them, how would you do it? Which side of the water’s surface understands the big picture of their life the best? Would it be the fish looking out or you looking in? Would the fish even know what water is? It has always been there. All of its life it has lived within it. Every part of its life from birth to death – eating, playing, loving, creating – all have been from inside this environment. Water would probably be totally taken for granted as just the way things are! Their knowledge of the other side of the water’s surface would be totally beyond their reach and the shadowy images beyond their understanding. They would have nothing to contrast and compare, since their life has been confined to their watery world. The only way to put their world in context is to have someone come into to it from the other side who has the ability to see and know without the darkened glass. “Who knows the end from the beginning” and the context and meaning of our lives.
Our world is not that much different from the fish’s. When God created Adam, he breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. When Jesus came, Paul says, “…the second Adam was a life giving spirit.” This Spirit is defined as the breath or wind of God. We, like the fish who are surrounded and sustained by water, are surrounded and sustained by air, the breath of God! God has always been as close as our next breath! Each time we breathe we can be awakened and aware of His presence! God is not separate, distant, uninterested or uninvolved! He is our very life! Jesus has come from the other side, from the Father of all creation, to make this all clear!
Seeing Jesus
Do you think my story is a little fishy?
This is the God who came into His world on our side of the water’s surface. The one who becomes a fish! The one John spoke about in John 1:1-4, 1 John 1:1-4, and who was present in Genesis 1:1-5 and before – the Logos, The Word, who was face to face with the Father from all eternity. The one who created all things and sustains them, “…by the word of his power.” It is He who brings breath and life to our world. He who shines light into our darkness, who we saw, heard and handled when He was in our flesh and living among us. He is the one we are destined to become by seeing Him clearly in the glass!
Through a Glass is the introductory blog for the sermon below: