11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

This verse strikes me and speaks to me as if I need to evaluate my spiritual maturity.

Everyone comes to Christ in a personal relationship differently. We all know ten-year-old children who have a greater personal relationship with Jesus than a forty-year-old who was baptized at age twelve.  The difference is in faith and spiritual education. If are to love the way we are asked to love, then we should be spiritually growing. No one is fully mature, as stated in the next verse, until we are face to face with Jesus.  We continue to be “a part” of ourselves, meaning a fraction of who Christ has planned for us. We can grow that part and flourish with the Holy Spirits guidance and the word of God to educate us.

 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Looking in the mirror after all these years, I am glad and comforted to know I am unfinished. I am an incomplete piece of art for the father to continue molding. He paints my life beautiful. He chips away at my rough edges. He smooths out the scratchy surfaces on my heart, and he fills in the deep cuts from other humans.  He provides exactly what I need, precisely when I need it.

When we are fully known, it will be too late to go back and love how we should have loved. To be fully known is to be in a place of eternity, sorted as sheep and goats. The way we loved during our time on earth will reflect in the mirror of our life. Jesus will disclose to all what our life was about. Did we treasure things and places? Did we hold tight to our heart stuff that could be ripped away- vanishing like snow in the sun?

Or did we love fully, allowing us to live fully?

When we choose to love in all circumstances always sacrificially and unconditionally, we begin to fulfill being fully known. Being fully known is the goal. Spending all eternity with our Father in Heaven is the goal.

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