Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Paul wrote: "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." I Corinthians 13:12, NIV

It was one of those "Aha!" moments. I happened to glance up and note my reflection in the window, mirroring my every move as I sat eating my breakfast on a dark, wintery morning. I thought, "What a perfect example of Paul's allegory of "Seeing through a glass darkly" in the 'Love Chapter' of his letter to the Corinthians." (Chapter 13, King James version.)
I knew what lay outside, on the other side of the window, but I could see nothing, because the contrast between my lighted table and the night outside transformed the window glass into a mirror, albeit an imperfect one.
So that's what Paul was talking about! We are unable to see the heavenly kingdom from the light of this life, seeing only an imperfect image of ourselves, because of the contrast of what is, and what is to be.
If I sit long enough, watch and wait long enough, the dawning will come. First, I will start to see a glimmer of red, presaging the advent of the dawn. I will begin to note the outlines of the trees in the woods, ghostly shapes only, backlit by the rising sun.
Soon, the image of the garage will take shape, although just a dark, blank area at first. Soon, I know, my image in the glass will fade, and the scene of God's great kingdom will fill my view in all its radiant splendor.
It was there all along; there was just such a contrast between the two worlds that the larger, more permanent one, was invisible.
By the time I sat down for my noon meal, the once hidden had been made plain. I could readily see the roughness of the bark on the trees, the branches moving slightly in the breeze. Squirrels use it for both a home and a gym, scurrying about, seeking their own lunch. Birds visit the feeders, placed there for the purpose of both providing them with food and us humans with visual enjoyment. Now the mirror effect is reversed; we can watch them, while they can not see us.
There is a vital, everlasting truth here. When we see ourselves only, though as in a glass, darkly, we focus on the image that we do see, not on the image of the world on the other side. Even though we leave the table and the window, in essence, we continue to focus on "our" world, and not God's world.
Sometimes we need reminders of what lies on the "other side." Regular times for meditation, for worship, Bible reading, and contemplation, bring us back for the 'meal' at the 'window,' to reveal God in all of His Glory.
January 7, 2007

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: 2 Corinthians Ch. 4
Paul said, “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God . . .”
2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV
Tin, glass, plastic - chances are, you bring home some of each kind of container from a trip to the grocery store. Plastic is great for cold processed and packaged items like drinks and dairy products, but you don’t find non-refrigerated or frozen fruits and vegetables in plastic. Why not? Because some food items have to be heated to kill bacteria that would cause the food to spoil, and plastics can’t take the heat! So tin and glass rule the shelves in the room temperature veggie section.
Think about the many years (centuries, millenniums) that food could not be preserved for extended periods of time. Drying and salting were the only options - sometimes a combination of both. Even then, a period of high humidity quickly spoiled the food. Problem enough for the home; difficult to deal with on the road.
By its very nature, an army spends a lot of time on the road. Soldiers have to be fed. No food, no fight. Scrounging the countryside for available food was long a tradition for fighting men. Napoleon, of France, sought for a solution that would enable his army to have rations easily transported wherever the soldiers went. That meant some method of preserving and packaging food so that it would not spoil during long campaigns. Now you might not want to feed an army (one or two teenagers are close) but you can thank Napoleon when you pick up a tin can (actually steel coated with tin) because the method they developed was to seal food in the can, and heat it to the boiling point - Pasteurization!
Yes, Louis Pasteur discovered that heating killed micro-organisms, the things that cause food to spoil. Killing them is not enough, though, but sealing pasteurized food in an air-tight can prevents re-contamination of the food. You folks who put up food in glass canning jars know that.
Now consider the predecessor of tin, glass and plastic. Something people could make from available materials. Jars of clay, fired in a kiln. They were used for centuries for storage and transport of all sorts of things. They find them by the hundreds at old shipwrecks around the Mediterranean Sea. Many reveal the treasure they once held.
They were so common that Paul alluded to Christians as “jars of clay,” holding the treasure of Christ. Paul wrote, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
So each time you reach for the “lowly” container on the grocery shelf, give thanks for that other “container” that holds the treasure preserved for eternity.
July 14, 2002

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Paul wrote: "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." I Corinthians 13:12, NIV

It was one of those "Aha!" moments. I happened to glance up and note my reflection in the window, mirroring my every move as I sat eating my breakfast on a dark, wintery morning. I thought, "What a perfect example of Paul's allegory of "Seeing through a glass darkly" in the 'Love Chapter' of his letter to the Corinthians." (Chapter 13, King James version.)
I knew what lay outside, on the other side of the window, but I could see nothing, because the contrast between my lighted table and the night outside transformed the window glass into a mirror, albeit an imperfect one.
So that's what Paul was talking about! We are unable to see the heavenly kingdom from the light of this life, seeing only an imperfect image of ourselves, because of the contrast of what is, and what is to be.
If I sit long enough, watch and wait long enough, the dawning will come. First, I will start to see a glimmer of red, presaging the advent of the dawn. I will begin to note the outlines of the trees in the woods, ghostly shapes only, backlit by the rising sun.
Soon, the image of the garage will take shape, although just a dark, blank area at first. Soon, I know, my image in the glass will fade, and the scene of God's great kingdom will fill my view in all its radiant splendor.
It was there all along; there was just such a contrast between the two worlds that the larger, more permanent one, was invisible.
By the time I sat down for my noon meal, the once hidden had been made plain. I could readily see the roughness of the bark on the trees, the branches moving slightly in the breeze. Squirrels use it for both a home and a gym, scurrying about, seeking their own lunch. Birds visit the feeders, placed there for the purpose of both providing them with food and us humans with visual enjoyment. Now the mirror effect is reversed; we can watch them, while they can not see us.
There is a vital, everlasting truth here. When we see ourselves only, though as in a glass, darkly, we focus on the image that we do see, not on the image of the world on the other side. Even though we leave the table and the window, in essence, we continue to focus on "our" world, and not God's world.
Sometimes we need reminders of what lies on the "other side." Regular times for meditation, for worship, Bible reading, and contemplation, bring us back for the 'meal' at the 'window,' to reveal God in all of His Glory.
January 7, 2007