When I was a child, one of my favourite toys was a kaleidoscope (a cylinder with mirrors containing loose, coloured objects such as beads or pebbles or pieces of glass.)
As you look through one end of a kaleidoscope, light entering the other end creates a colourful pattern due to the reflection from the mirrors. When you turn the end of the kaleidoscope, the beads or pebbles are shaken into new patterns. The word itself is from the Greek words kalos (beautiful), eidos (form, shape, that which is seen) and skopeo (to look at or examine.) I could be entertained for hours by the variety of the patterns I could observe:
As we have been studying 1 John, we have discussed the question of perspective, meditating particularly on 1 John 3:2: ‘now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.‘ Now, we only see part of the picture (1 Cor 13:12). Our vision is limited and the patterns we see look sometimes as confusing as the pattern seen in a kaleidoscope. But though we only see things from our own perspective, although our vision is limited, God is making a picture from our lives which will be more beautiful than any mosaic we can ever imagine.
