Prophecies lead us to love

I've always wondered what 1 Cor 13:8-13 means. Today, I think I finally do. It is talking about the experience of love, about what happens when we encounter God, who is Love. It acknowledges that prophecies, tongues and words of knowledge can lead us into an encounter with God. But when God shows up, all of these fade away into the background. Because prophecies are but shadows of the reality of His love. When His love comes, all these shadows have served their purpose and they need no longer to be there. In our encounter with God, all things fade away, but three things remain: Faith, Hope and Love. And the greatest of these is love.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. [1 Cor 13:8-13]