Fog

Google AI defines fog this way: “Fog is a low-lying, visible cloud of microscopic water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air near the Earth's surface. It forms when air temperature cools to its dew point, forcing water vapor to condense, and reduces horizontal visibility to less than 1 kilometre (about 0.6 miles).”

I have a passion for photography, mainly people photography. Landscapes, while I admire them, are not of great interest to me. But there is an exception - fog. When there is a heavy fog I often take a camera with me on my daily walk to our local wetlands. Fog makes everything look great, especially when the sun is shining above it. Obscuring of the scene as it does, fog provides a whole different vibe to a familiar landscape. It’s good both to look at it and to photograph it.

There is another not so great aspect to a heavy fog though. When I go out, camera in hand, the local weather bureau often issues a hazardous conditions warning. Road conditions are dangerous because the fog obscures visibility.

Another hazard is when the word ‘fog’ is used to describe a state of mind where you can’t think straight. That can also be hazardous can’t it.

God‘s Bible tells us to be clear thinking and intentional, but to also recognise our limitations. It’s interesting that both of these things stand out in a verse from the Bible book of Corinthians. “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”                    (1 Corinthians 13:12  NLT)

This quote from the New Living Translation gives the meaning, but the one from the New King James Version is closer to the original Greek. “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” It’s also worth noting when reading this verse that the mirror referred to would have been polished metal which would have shown a very blurry image compared to the clarity of the mirrors we use today.

Just like looking in a polished metal mirror, it's true that we can’t see clearly what God has in store for those who love Him.

But our Bibles clearly tell us just how good it will be to be in God‘s kingdom forever. That's the ‘then’ that is referred to in the Corinthians quote.

As with most of what we talk about it’s all there to read for yourself in God‘s Bible.