Through a magnifying glass - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

When that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. Now we see dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
1 Corinthians 13:10.12.

Through a magnifying glass
I was admiring a large painting in a museum, when a small boy came along and, for a joke, started looking at the picture through a magnifying glass. I asked him to describe the picture for me. He took his magnifying glass and started listing many details. Here was a bunch of flowers, there sat a robin etc. In this way the boy saw nothing but tiny details without getting an impression of the whole. He could not tell me what the painting really depicted.

I suggested that he should stand back and look at the picture without his magnifying glass. Suddenly he saw the entire landscape, the harmony of the colours and the proportions of the elements. Previously he had seen only "in part"; now he could see everything. It was the same picture, but the description the boy gave me was quite different.

"Now I know in part" said the apostle Paul. On earth we have only a fragmentary awareness of things. God sees the whole, however. When we pray, we tell God our needs according to our present view of things. But God already knows the whole picture. And His wise answer takes account of countless elements that we overlook or do not know.

By reading the Bible we can come to know God and His thoughts better and better. Things are pieced together. But when believers are with Christ in glory, they will have a perfect view of the whole. How they look forward to that moment!

Today's reading: Nehemiah 12:1-30 · Proverbs 16:12-24