#3 Kaleidescope

#3 Kaleidescope

“Jesus said ‘But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.’”[1]

I remember when I was young that my grandmother had a kaleidoscope, which looked like a telescope. It was a long tube, with a lens at one end and mirrors in the other. When you held it up to the light, the many bits of colored glass between the two ends reflected a myriad of bright colors and patterns. As you turned the far end, the broken bits of glass would fall and rearrange themselves, and produce an array of colorful patterns that could hold your attention for a long time. This was obviously before cell phones, iPads, computers, mainframes or even television! But when first produced in 1817, over 200,000 were sold in London and Paris within 3 months![2] (and illustration too).

To get the beauty of the experience, you must

1) look through the right end (to the right);

2) hold it up to the light;

3) turn the end of the scope;

4) watch the colors and patterns change;

It’s amazing how many different patterns and colors appear as you slowly turn it.

The Bible is a finite book that contains the infinite Word of God, just as Jesus incarnates all of God that we need to know about the Father’s love and grace for us and our salvation.

Often people remark that they just don’t understand the Bible, and I say that it’s just like a kaleidoscope:

1)     Look through the right end. In terms of a kaleidoscope, looking through the wrong end doesn’t produce much to look at. So when we read the Bible as an Answer Book for our particular problem or situation, we’re reading it the wrong way. We need to look at the God in the Bible, not our problems.

2)     You must hold it up to the light of the Holy Spirit to illuminate what’s inside. Many people may read the Bible, but not with an open heart and mind, or they just study it as history. (Thomas Jefferson cut all the miracles out of his Bible!) We need to let the Holy Spirit guide and direct our thoughts and reading and struggle with what we yet don’t understand. That’s why Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth.

3)      You must turn it. Keep reading scripture day by day, and as life turns around through good and bad, you see more and new meaning in the scripture and your life. The bits and pieces of our lives fall together in new patterns and meanings. Many times I’ve discovered new meanings in Bible passages that I’ve read before, but because of experiences I have had since I last read the passage, I am given new or fresh insights.

4)      Broken pieces. And the Bible is made up of stories of broken people, broken promises, broken lives, broken communities, and about God’s care for all the world - to the Jews first and then to the nations. “Rejoice, you nations, with his people…”[3]  In holy scripture we see HIS story (history) unfold from Genesis to Revelation.

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[1] John 16:13 NIV

[2] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidoscope

[3] Deut 32:43, Rom 15:10