1 Corinthians 13:12 - King James Version (KJV)
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.
I have just read an advertisement for "adjustable focus reading glasses". There are dials on each side of the frame and you can adjust each lens individually. So, if your eyes have different needs, you can set the lenses to meet the needs of each one. And as your eyes change over time, you can change the settings on the glasses.
This is a wonderful idea. It may be too expensive for many, but it is wonderful.
The ad got me to thinking about more than reading documents, letters, books or e-readers. There have been times when I would have liked something akin to this for reading situations in life; something that might have helped me to see focus the lenses of my mind in order to see things in a clearer manner. Who knows, I might have made a few different decisions and taken a few different turns in my life's journey.
And there are the times when trying to "read" another person that I would like to have such adjustable lenses.
There is no physical optical lens that can do this for us at the moment. Instead, we have to count on our own inner thoughts and reflections. My experience is that these are sometimes a bit unfocused or a bit dirty and when that is true my vision of things is rather murky.
But we do learn over time to adjust those inner lenses. Like looking through a telescope or binoculars, we can learn to fiddle with the dials until the picture we are looking at becomes clearer. That isn't easy, and often we learn this by making errors base upon fuzzy pictures.
And I am sure I need not say that seeing ourselves, especially our inner lives, is sometimes where we have the most difficulty.
This is where the most important practice and learning enter in. Can I really see who I am? (Often this is only possible in the reflections in other people's eyes.)
Can I clearly see my own inner spiritual life?
Perhaps not in full. Perhaps I need to make the best decision I can, knowing that I do so through smudged lenses and therefore with murky outcomes. Let us each do the best we can with what we have, being willing to admit when we have made mistakes.
