through a glass...

I was reading a post that Laci put up last night, and the quotes she posted reminded me of a verse I read this morning in my quiet time. (here's the quotes...)

The way out. To show the fly the way out of the bottle was the life's hope of Ludwig Wittenstein but the truth is that human beings don't want a way out of the bottle; we are captivated, enthralled by the interior of the bottle; its glassy sides caress and console us; its glassy sides are the perimeters of our experience and our aspiration; the bottle is our skin, our soul; we're accustomed to the visual distortions of the glass; we would not wish to see clearly, without the barrier of the glass; we could not breathe a fresher air; we could not survive outside the bottle.

Or tell ourselves, in the classy-echoing language of the bottle, that this is so.

--Joyce Carol Oates, from I'll Take You There ("Anellia") p. 190

To show the fly the way out of the bottle? Break the bottle

--Joyce Carol Oates, from I'll Take You There ("Anellia") p. 243

The verse is I Corinthians 13:12 "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

The "glass" in the verse technically refers to a mirror, but I think it works for my example, as well. Like the bottle, we have boundaries to what we know and experience. We can sort of see what's beyond our boundaries, but not really--not clearly. The stubborn ones, when told of what truly lies beyond the bottle, stick their fingers in their ears and yell, not wishing to know the truth. We would not wish to see clearly, without the barrier of the glass. They convince themselves that what they see through the glass is the true way things are.

So how do we see clearly? Break the bottle. The only time we will completely "get it" is when we're in heaven, face to face with God. We might get some little glimpse of what it's really all about while we're here, but like the verse says, we won't really know till we see Him. To know that what we're seeing is slightly (if not drastically) distorted is enough for now.