1 Corinthians 13:11-12 “When I was a child I talked like a child, thought like a child, reasoned like a child. When I became a man I put my childish ways behind me. Now we see 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.”
My brother and I grew up spending most of our weekends making a three hour trek with our parents from our home in Oklahoma City to our grandparents in western Oklahoma. What a great place to experience as a kid. Farms with big barns, tractors, and fields that went on forever. Every kind of farm animal you could think of from sheep, cattle and horses, wild turkey, dogs, and cats. Both sides of the family were large so there were plenty of cousins to keep us occupied. It had been years since our last visit.
We have gone back on occasion to visit, but more recently to attend funerals as our grandparents, parents and other relatives have passed away. On one particular trip, we were discussing how we had not been out to the old properties in a while. We hooked up with several of our cousins and went to take a look too see what we would find, but to reminisce and catch up on some fond memories.
Both sets grandparents lived close to each other separated by a mile of dirt road and pasture land. When we arrived at the property of my grandparents on my mothers side, we saw that the old house and barn had been torn down and turned back to pasture. All that was left was a field surrounded by trees where the house and barn had once stood. Otherwise everything else looked as I remembered with the exception of a trees being much larger having grown over the years.
As we were standing where the house once stood we looked at the field that was toward the back of the property. There we saw a couple of familiar sights. In the field stood two old silver water tanks that we used to play around. Water tanks that the animals used to come and drink from years ago.
We walked down to take a look and could not believe how small they were compared to how we remembered them as kids. When we were growing up these things were huge, almost as big as swimming pools. Sometimes we would even swim in them to get a break from the summer heat. I remember we could barley hold our breath from one side to the other. Surely they weren’t this small!
My fathers parents lived about one mile away. As we drove to their property, I remember at about the half way point there was one huge hill my parents and grandparents used to drive down so fast, at the bottom, it would take your breath away. As we came upon that hill, it was more like a small dip in the road and not this monster hill I remembered. Where was this huge hill we once drove?
When we arrived, we parked and walked toward the property. Weeds had taken over. The old house had burned down years ago, apparently, from teenagers partying in the abandoned home. There were remnants of the old property though in the rubble. An old bath tub where I had taken baths. An old storm shelter. The old barn was still standing. I noticed some windows in the window frame of the barn, mostly half broken, but some glass still remained. It brought back memories of a small child that received his first spanking many years ago after finding out that shooting his new BB Gun at the windows of the barn was not acceptable. As we approached the old barn it too seemed to have gotten smaller as well. It wasn’t nearly as big as I remember it being.
Isn’t it funny how as a child we lock an image in our mind and then years later as an adult see it from a much different perspective. We spent most of our times looking up at things. As we grew older our perspectives changed. We get bigger, more mature (hopefully), and in some ways much wiser to the world.
1 Corinthian 13’s main focus is on love and our maturing in love. However, in verse 11 and 12 we are given an interesting analogy. The comparison of our lives spiritually is made to that of a child maturing into adulthood. We are told that just as adults put away childish things, one day we will be able to do the same spiritually. “For now we know in part”. Someday though “we will know fully”.
We all know that children see the world through their child like perspectives. They are not aware of many dangers or how circumstances of life can and will affect them as they grow older. Even as adults today, we may think we are mature and know about life and love, when in reality, we only see a “poor reflection” of what is really going on in our world. We are still in growth mode and will be until that day when we will “know fully .”
We have to remember no matter how old or mature we think we are, we are still Children of God. And, just as children are not fully aware of what is going on around them, we cannot fully comprehend all that God is managing around us. We have a promise though. Some day we will be able to “fully know” and will be “fully known”. At that point, I believe when we look back we will see those things that we thought were such big life-changing events for us were actually much smaller than we imagined. Much smaller when compared to the grander scheme of God’s plan. Then, we will “fully know” the answers to the why’s of our lives.
Wow, that took me back to some childhood memories. As a child, our environment looks bigger. As an adult our problems look bigger and we sometimes feel like children when we can’t solve them. Thankfully, God the Father has our back.