Are You Looking AT the Glass - Or THROUGH It?

I have worn glasses since my college days. And when I first started wearing glasses, I noticed every speck of dust on them. As I recall, I even saw specks of dust that weren’t there. I blew on them; I wiped them; I cleaned them; I washed them. Of course, while I was cleaning them and had my attention focused on them, I was not able to see what was really going on around me. Can there be a spiritual application in this?

For many years now, I have almost never seen any dust on my glasses. I have learned to look through them - to see what I want to see beyond the lenses. My glasses are an aid, more than that, they are essential to my being able to see everything better! Periodically, I blow on my glasses, wipe them off, but I am not preoccupied with them. They are one of God’s provisions to help me to see the light that is reflected off everything that is around me.

How many times have we read “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12) and longed to be delivered into this “then face to face” thing?

Deliverance FROM what? We weren’t exactly sure but it sounded like it would be marvelous when it takes place “in the sweet by and by”, whenever that would be.

And delivered TO what? If things seemed dark, then we hoped we would be delivered into that glorious light.

We were quite confident that whatever that deliverance would be, it would be heavenly. We have trusted the Father that everything would be perfect - eventually.

Ah, but getting back to daily life, we generally are concerned with the here and now and expect that the by and by will take care of itself. What do we find in the here and now? Temptations, aggravations, weariness, circumstances and situations, along with what we consider to be “good” things.

COULD ALL OF THESE THINGS THAT OUR TEMPORAL LIFE CONSISTS OF ACTUALLY BE OUR “GLASS” THAT APPEARS DARK?
Has the Father allowed these things to be our lot for a purpose? Do they have anything to do with bringing us to Christ or to a clearer VISION of who and what Christ is, and therefore since Christ lives in us, to who and what we are?

What do we think about minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day? “For as he thinks in his heart, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7). Am “I” really the sum total of what I think? No. Is that who “I” am? No. What we think is often the major contributor to our concept of who we are. But is that “you”? Is that “I”? Not at all. When you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have been born again with Christ and His holy nature living within you. Then these worldly things cannot possibly be “you”! Soulish-self, perhaps, but not “you”!

The way we see events is our “glass darkly”. It is not what happens to us; it is the way we perceive the events. We wonder if they are “good” or “evil”, did Satan do them to us, or was it that other person who wronged us? How about our response to these happenings? Will we gladly accept them (I did not say “like” them, but “accept” them) as allowed for overall good as Job did?

What happens when you are in the dark for a long time and are suddenly exposed to much light all at once? Are you not dazed and blinded? Is it not better to get slowly accustomed to the light gradually?

What are we growing to see? Are we getting a clearer vision of Christ in all things? Or, on the other hand, are we looking at the person who aggravates us, the faucet that keeps leaking, the difficult economy, the frustrating work environment, and on and on?

What is our “glass”? What do we see? Perhaps the real question is: Are we looking AT the glass or THROUGH it? To see Christ we need clear vision.

There is another example of learning to look through something and not focusing on it but rather seeing beyond it. A decade or so ago, computers created for us what are called “3D Magic Eye” pictures. When we examine the details of the flat picture, it just looks weird - a bunch of repeated images that do not make sense. But when we learn to focus our eyes beyond the level of the picture surface itself, a wonderful three-dimensional picture appears almost magically. It is like the picture surface is a glass through which we are looking into a box with multiple depth images. But if our attention wanders back to the picture surface itself, we immediately lose our depth perception. We become lost in the image detail again and lose the glory of what can be seen beyond.

So what is our “glass darkly”? Some examples are: sin (ours and others), the world, the flesh and the devil. But Christ has conquered all of these! WE DON’T HAVE TO CONQUER THEM! Christ is the conqueror, and He lives within us. He is our life.

For example, our sin as Christians. Sin is serious - it can seriously cloud our vision. It is a missing of the mark of God’s standard for our human existence. But it is not fatal in a Christian. We quickly wipe the lenses without becoming preoccupied with guilt, and proceed to view beyond to God’s panorama for our life.

What about conflict with other Christians? We must look beyond our smeared glasses and must see in the Christian the same one life that we have. It is the same one life that Christ IS. It is the only life. How can we love God whom we have not seen? By loving the Christ in our Christian brothers and sisters whom we do see (I John 4:20-21).

What about unconverted people of the world? Can we see Christ in them? Of course not, there is no Christ to see. We cannot see Christ in them, but we CAN see God dealing with them in such a way as to bring them to salvation and life in Christ. The lenses may be pretty mud spattered, but we can still see beyond to God’s purposes. We can “hate the sin” by cleaning the lenses with the lens tissue of God’s love and seeing to the future accomplishment of the grace of God’s salvation.

Always, whether with people, circumstances, or whatever, our necessity is to see through them to Christ. With singleness of eye, we only see Christ. When we no longer have anything to do with seeing the “glass”, then we will see Christ — FACE TO FACE!

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