Isaiah 46:9-10
In English, the following is a well-known saying: “Can’t see the forest for the trees.”
In many ways, this is my life’s idiom.
I’m a details person. I love, and thrive off of, the minutiae.
This is both a blessing and a curse. The ability to hone in has tremendous benefits; however, this tunnel vision can also be crippling. I often miss the major point or the overall gist because I’m too preoccupied with the details.
I recently had brunch with a friend during which we chatted about my limited vision and God's ability to see things we can't. In response, she shared the following analogy:
“Sometimes we only see in single picture frames. Our vision is limited, and thus, we often only see a snapshot of our lives. However, God sees in collages.”
I often forget that God is a big-picture person, and that his long-sightedness protects us from our short-sightedness.
When we’re in life’s dark room, we may not see anything but incompatible film snippets; however, God takes these disparate strips and forms a congruous panorama.
He sees the whole picture. He created it. And, he acts in our lives to reveal his portrait, especially when we’re stuck in our myopia.
For this, I’m thankful.
Elaine Austin on April 26, 2016 at 5:14 pm
Yes God sees the bigger picture. We are short sighted. It is often only in retrospecr that we understand what He is doing. Like my Pasot said a few Sundays ago. Perfect obedience doen’t require perfect understanding
Jessica Conzen on April 28, 2016 at 6:59 am
Elaine, thanks for your comment! I like how you point out that we often only understand what God is doing in retrospect. It reminds me of the cliche “hindsight is 20/20.”