I have a thing for clean windows. I’ve been known to wash windows when it was dark, in fact the other night Dave and I were sitting on the patio and I had to get up and clean the sliding door because I had seen all the smudges on it earlier in the day.
I also want to have the windows in the car cleaned. We do a lot of driving and I’m always wanting to get a good picture but if the windshield or the side windows are spotted with bugs it ruins the shot.
And if you’re not concerned enough about my compulsive cleaning I should mention that I have this same drive to clean mirrors and my glasses. I know, I know but I have a need to see clearly.
I realize that I come by this “need” for clean windows naturally. As a child, my dad was always cleaning windows. When I got married, Dave & I would go to visit my folks and as we were in the car ready to drive away, Daddy would stop us and clean the windshield. It didn’t matter we were heading to the gas station and would do it there. We couldn’t leave with a dirty window.
So as I was cleaning the windows in the dark (windows don’t streak if you wash them at night), I realized that not only had my earthly father given me a desire for clean, clear windows but my heavenly Father had as well.
“When we were children, we thought and reasoned as children do. But when we grew up, we quit our childish ways. 12 Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror. Later we will see him face to face. We don’t know everything, but then we will, just as God completely understands us. 13 For now there are faith, hope, and love. But of these three, the greatest is love.” I Corinthians 13:11-13
Sound familiar – these are the verses from the end of the “love chapter” I Corinthians 13. Paul draws a comparison between our thinking like children and the way we see God. We don’t have full understanding of things when we are children and while we are here on earth we really don’t have a full understanding of God’s character and His purpose for us. It’s like looking through a dirty glass – we just can’t see clearly but we will someday.
As children we don’t completely understand many things that we gain knowledge of as we grow into mature adults. And we don’t understand the depth of God’s love and His character as long as we are here on earth. That’s where faith, hope and love come in.
Our hope in God and His word is what feeds our faith to not only believe that God can do all things but that He will! Why? Because of His great love. Gaining knowledge of God’s love is like cleaning the windows, we get a clearer picture of who God is. Once we get to heaven, we will know as God does but until then we an keep growing.
“But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful. 9 But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. 10 Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life.” Romans 5:8-10