Learning to Live in the Incomplete

I got married and moved into our new home two weeks ago, and let’s just say, the place isn’t perfect. 

Like most homes, there’s an incompleteness present. The kitchen floor, for example, is old and we can’t wait to replace it. There’s painting that still needs to be done. There’s empty rooms that still need furniture. There’s a backyard that needs a lot of re-work and weeding. There’s bedrooms that need children in them. It’s a “work in progress” like many homes are.

This experience of looking around at our incomplete home day in and day out reminded me of today’s Gospel where there’s a sense of incompleteness and uncertainty in Jesus’ words. He has much to tell and show us, but can’t quite yet. Not everything has been revealed. There’s a waiting and gradual revealing that we must experience, and it’s not always a comfortable place to be in when we are anxious, frustrated and yearning for completeness. 

Yet, most of our lives are learning to live in what is incomplete and not yet revealed to us by God. In fact, our whole experience of life is incomplete, and only in eternity will it be complete. In addition, we don’t really know who God ultimately wants us to become – only God sees the final picture. We live in the ambiguous, uncertain present with only gradual glimpses of what God has in store. 

Our role is to be open to those glimpses and catch them along the way; to have listening hearts and eyes that see the glory of God coming into being. We do this in prayer and by being aware of God in our midst.

I think that’s the lesson of today’s Gospel: To be open and alert to what God is revealing and to embrace the incompleteness of what we know about our lives and God, because there is so much more to be revealed.