Snapshots remind us of times past. They rekindle memories and create opportunities for sharing stories.
Those who have experienced God before us provide snapshots of God’s love for us. This love speaks through their words. It speaks through their actions.
As different as their lives and cultures were from ours, God’s love remains the same. Love speaks to us on our darkest days and in our brightest hours. Love speaks to us through stories and snapshots. Love speaks to us through actions and words.
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. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 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. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:8-13
My grandmother had an old mirror at her house that stood in a corner. It was older than my mother. As a kid I was fascinated at this poor excuse for a mirror. In fact, it was pretty hard to imagine using it. Despite that, there were plenty of trips where I would stand at that mirror. Had I needed to tuck my shirt in for Sunday dinner, it would have offered little help.
When Paul talks about partial things ceasing, and those we put away, it is difficult to know where he is going with this in relation to love. Then comes the mirror in which we see dimly. The best expressions of love we see are just partial glimpses of God’s full love for us. Only when seeing God face-to-face will we learn the difference, because it is then that we will see how God sees us.
Until then, we have peeks at this love through ones we love, ones who love us, and love shared between strangers, all in the name of Christ.
Brian Foreman
God, open my eyes today to love and be loved, to know and be known, as I serve others in your name. Amen.
You are God’s.
You are loved and known.
Let love speak to you.
Let love speak through you.
Amen.