Yesterday I wondered why some photons go through glass and some bounce back giving us a reflection. It is wonderful to have smart friends. I have a scientist friend who has explained to me that if the glass were perfect all the photons would pass through but the imperfections in the glass, when struck by photons, cause some photons to bounce back into the room. Thus I see myself.
And so it is that all of God’s light cannot pass into us because we are also not perfect. Our sinful nature, our selfishness, our lewd desires render us impotent to understand all that God wants us to know. He holds nothing back. He floods us with love, mercy and knowledge but we just don’t get it. Lest we start hating ourselves for this it is not all our fault. So much of what we are we inherited. Adam and Eve, after sin, did not have perfection to pass on to Cain. That didn’t work out so well. How quickly sin changed us. Much of what we are is the product of thousands of generations of imperfect, selfish people.
Now I do not want to get overly Freudian here and place all the blame for my problems on grandpa and grandma. God understands our plight and thus makes external power available to us. “Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling” is a magnificent promise. (Jude) (Since there isn’t a Jude 2 I didn’t bother with the reference.)
The good news is in I Corinthians 15 we are told this imperfection will put on perfection. Which I think means we will be totally open to God’s light and will learn an incredible amount of new things forever and ever. Oh how smart we will be!
Written by Roger Bothwell on January 27, 2016
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