Seeing.
It's one of the five senses.
You'd think that it would be relatively objective.
After all, we can all look at the picture above, and see that there is a field of wild grass with scattered wildflowers and a stream running along in the background.
Right?
Fairly straightforward and simple... until...
...until you start talking about perspective.
Perspective is a bit like different filters or settings or whatever (I'm really not camera-smart). That collage has the original photo in the top left. All of the other photos are essentially (I didn't use a tripod, so the focus is a little bit different each time) the same picture, each one taken as I wheeled through the different automatic scene settings on my camera.
Perspective wasn't a commonly used word... until relatively recently. It's usage has augmented greatly since the 1960's.
I think that means that this world recognizes that there are different ways to see the same thing... This "infographic" about middle eastern perspectives on how women should dress dramatically and surprisingly demonstrates this fact. Perspective matters - not just because it filters, even sometimes changes, details seen - but because some perspectives are more accurate than others. Only one perspective, God's, is guaranteed true. I need to remember that as I parent, as I interact with others, as I minister and serve... as I walk through this life...
Frankly, the perspective I want to keep most of all is one of never-forgetting Who always sees rightly, even when I can't see or when I focus on all the wrong stuff... the one delightfully expressed in these song lyrics:
When trouble seems to rain on my dreams
It's not a big, not a big deal
Let it wash all the bugs off my windshield
Cause You're showing me in You I'm free
And You're still the refuge
That I've just got to get to
"Only one perspective, God's, is guaranteed true."
ReplyDeleteIn this world of changing perspectives, norms, fads, standards of beauty, and how easily images, and the truth, can be manipulated, it is so good to be reminded that God "sees rightly" - He sees me for who I am and who I am in Christ, and He sees true beauty and the heart, no matter what others see or say.
I think it is so important to remember that He sees it as it is - and the more I become like His Son, the more I let His thoughts be my thoughts, the better my vision will become ~
DeleteRichelle,
ReplyDeleteSuch wise and timely words...I always need God to help me to have the right perspective daily...blessings and Thank you :)
don't we all... desperately... :-)
DeleteI agree, perspective is everything!
ReplyDeleteSeeing God's perspective instead of ours is key to our daily peace...at least mine for sure!
For anyone interested, my husband shares a free resource guide on that exact topic, available here: http://www.sagegardencare.org/newsletter/
thanks for the resource, LeeAnn!
DeleteWow, thanks for demonstrating how the same picture can look with different perspectives. I never thought that much about it before.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right, only God's perspective is true every time. One more reason to hang out with Him all the time!
"hanging out" with God :-) no better plan!
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