I remember a family night a few years ago when our children were quite a bit younger and Talitha was still waiting her turn to come to Earth.
We did an activity to help us gain a little perspective. First we all laid down on the floor in our home and took turns describing what we could see. Then we stood up and again described our new field of vision and noted what we could now see that just wasn't possible to see before. We repeated this exercise again and again climbing on chairs, then on ladders outside, then up on the roof of our home, then driving up into the moutains where we could overlook the entire valley.
After some great discussion, we concluded that each time we climbed higher the difference of what we could see or comprehend grew exponentially. Had we limited our perspective to the lower, limited viewpoints, it would have been easy to draw flawed conclusions about how the world works or why things are the way they are.
Finally, we considered what God can see from a vantage point far higher than the mountain we were standing on or even the orbiting flight of a Space Shuttle. If we could see so much more with each step higher, what must God see and comprehend from His infinite vantage point.
The answer is, of course, that He sees it all and comprehends it all and therefore has perfect knowledge and understanding. Therefore, we can place our faith and confidence in Him without reservation.
How often in life do I get frustrated that things are going wrong when my capacity for such judgement is gathered from a point no greater than if I were laying on the floor.
Thankfully, the Lord has ways of inviting an improved perspective. He figuratively takes us to higher and highter vantage points at a rate that matches our willingness to trust in Him and have faith in his endless vision. Each of His commandments we keep, every scripture we read, every prayer we feel or speak, every moment in worship on Sunday and throughout the week lifts us to new heights and improves our ability to see things as they really are rather than seeing only in the blind, limited way of the world.
I have faith that the Lord can heal Talitha just as easily as he raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead. I know He hears my prayers because of the comfort He sends and the miracles I've personally witnessed. When I cry out in pain or feel my heart will break he takes me to higher ground and shows me the purpose of this life and that there's so much more to the eternities than what I can see from the laying-on-the-floor perspective.
Just this week, as I spoke to an amazing artist who ironically is losing her physical sight but can see so well spiritually, the thought came into my mind that there might be something even better... than this artist's eyes being healed right this moment or Talitha being cured from cancer immediately today.
From the moment I accepted that Talitha is in His hands and that the bounds are set by Him of how far the opposition can advance, I accepted that He works from an Eternal perspective and builds the best possible outcomes that transcend this world and lift us to the highest possible point of joy and happiness that we will allow. (For afterall, He cannot force us to be happy or make us receive all that He delights to give us according to His tender mercies.)
It was another hard day as we learned that the 3rd day of harvest yielded "only" an additional 18% putting us at 73% of the needed total. (That stem cell harvest machine is amazing! Looks like a giant circuit board with tracks of tubing, pumps, a centrifuge, and collectors. Somebody definitely stayed up way late one night coming up with that kind of creativity.)
To fight off discouragement I found myself considering that maybe, just maybe, there might be something even better...than getting the harvest done as fast as I want it to be done. Just the act of considering that God can prepare something even better than the best that any of us floor-dwellers can imagine has a way of calming the nerves and relaxing the tense muscles.
I'm still going to hope for the best that I can see is possible, but I'm also going to be open that there might be something even better...
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Your thoughts about perspective reminded me of a lesson Lydia taught me today. I was trying to get some rest and she came to the door very distraught. She was angry with me and told me I had hurt her feelings. I was very surprised and asked her to explain. She explained that her frustration was because I had taken a hanger that her Sunday dress had been on to put Johnathan's shirt on. It surprised me that she would feel so emotional about a hanger, so I decided to ask so more questions. I wanted to understand what was so special about that particular hanger. Well as we discussed it, I discovered that it was not about a particular hanger, but about a general fear of running out of hangers. I realized then that I needed to discuss accountability and responsibility with her. As we did so I explained that she was responsible to hang up her clothes, not for the number of hangers available. She had no means allowed to obtain more hangers short of asking for them, and so that was all she was responsible for. I think that sometimes, with our limited perspective we feel that God is being unfair when he "moves our hanger." But this is because we thought that success in hanging our clothes was dependent on a particular set of hangers. What we don't see from our perspective is the extra closets full of hangers he is waiting to give us when we are humble enough to ask. It just isn't necessarily the way that we thought it would be, but God does not set us up for failure.
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