Into the Dark

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It is hard to see in the dark. Most people would agree with me about this. When there is no light to see, we must incorporate our other senses to get where we need to go: touch, smell, etc. As we grope in the dark, we hope to find the exit to where the light is. However, the process of being unaware of where we are or how we are to get where we are going is truly frustrating and a little scary.  

In many ways our interaction with God is like this. It is like being in a dark room where we cannot see the way forward unless we use our other senses that are sharper in the absence of sight. This other sense is like faith; we can put our fingers around God so-to-speak, but it isn’t with our hands. Our interactions are innately spiritual; there is no physical dimension to this sensing. God is spirit and not made of the same stuff that we are. We feel God, but it is often like a cool breeze that gently surrounds us on a warm day. God usually feels still and small, yet within that still small voice there is a weight and dimension to it that is unmistakingly God. 

The darkness of faith (not a malevolent darkness) is the unknown aspects of God that we cannot perceive with our minds or souls. We simply do not understand everything about God—we cannot. To peer into the Divine mind and understand what we see would only be possible if our minds were as infinite in power and comprehension as God’s is. Therefore, we are doing what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13:12:

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 

For now, the life of faith in Christ Jesus is looking at God in a dim mirror where we see more distortion than what we would like, yet we are comforted with the promise that we shall fully see the true form in the glass at a point in the future. 

Until then we grope in the dark, stretching out to seize God’s hand. Christ will hold on to us if we let go of our right to see and fully grasp Him and His ways in this present life according to our preconceived expectations. The reward of faith is that the full vision will one day come into focus, and we will know and see Him as He is. God is truly impossible to fully grasp. Yet He satisfies us with enough for now, yet there is always more...infinitely more.  

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