URC Daily Devotions 30 August 2025
“The Answer”
Not darkness but twilight
In which even the best
of minds must make its way
now. And slowly the questions
occur, vague but formidable
for all that. We pass our hands
over their surface like blind
men feeling for the mechanism
that will swing them aside. They
yield, but only to reform
as new problems; and one
does not even do that
but towers immovable
before us
Is there no way
other than thought of answering
its challenge? There is an anticipation
of it to the point of
dying. There have been times
when, after long on my knees
in a cold chancel, a stone has rolled
from my mind, and I have looked
in and seen the old questions lie
folded and in a place
by themselves, like the piled
graveclothes of love’s risen body.
R S Thomas © Elodie Thomas
1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Reflection
R.S. Thomas’s poem “The Answer” resonates deeply with Paul’s profound insight in 1 Corinthians 13:12, which acknowledges that our human perceptions and understandings of God and God’s truth will always be significantly limited. Both explore the tension between our fragmentary understanding of God, and the promise of that one day we will know much more of God.
In this poem, Thomas writes of
Not darkness but twilight
In which even the best
of minds must make its way.
This echoes Paul’s metaphor of seeing in a mirror dimly, or as many remember it “through a glass darkly,” both acknowledging the imperfect nature of our spiritual sight. The questions that arise in this half-light are “vague but formidable,” much like our current partial understanding of the mystery that is God.
The poem portrays our attempts to grasp truth as being like blind people feeling for a mechanism, suggesting both our limitations and our persistence. Similarly, Paul recognises that our present knowledge is incomplete, though he promises a future of fuller understanding.
Thomas’s powerful image of kneeling in a cold chancel until
a stone has rolled
from my mind
offers hope amid the struggle. The questions don’t vanish but are transformed, lying
folded and in a place
by themselves, like the piled
graveclothes of love’s risen body.
This beautiful Easter allusion suggests that our wrestling with spiritual questions might itself be part of the journey toward understanding.
Both texts invite us to embrace the tension between knowing and not knowing. They suggest that spiritual truth isn’t about achieving perfect clarity in this life, but about persistent seeking, humble questioning, and occasional moments of grace-filled insight.
The journey of faith, as both R.S. Thomas and Paul reveal, is about making our way forward in twilight, trusting that our partial understanding will one day give way to a much greater understanding.
Prayer
Seeking Mystery,
we stand before you in our fractured knowing,
half-hearing melodies of truth.
Attune our listening beyond the limits of perception,
widening our understanding through patient grace.
Breathe into our incompleteness the promise of revelation,
gentle and transforming.
Amen.