Day 257- Thankful for perspective (photos)

I look out my window to the west and see this:

I look out my window to the north and see this:

When I look out at this beautiful western scene, my heart is happy. I take in the beauty, and I’m glad for God’s loving care and beautiful creating power.

The leaves reflect the light of the sun. There’s a sort of radiance that surrounds this area where this beautiful tree puts on this show every single year.

If I spend much time looking at the scene across the street, my heart becomes sad. The leaves on those trees are dull and do not reflect the light of the sun. Plus, at the time I took this picture, the clouds had begun to break up to the west but not as much to the north.

It is still a beautiful day, but I may miss it if I look at it from the wrong perspective.

Later in the day I went for a walk and took a few more photos. Here are two of the same burning bush from two different sides. Notice how perspective matters.

And here are a few shots of the same tree that I see out my western window, taken from different distances. Notice that the closer I get to it, the more I see it’s beauty.

When we perceive God from a distance, we may notice that He has some beauty that attracts us to Him. But as we get closer and closer to Him through His revealed Word (the Bible), we begin to see His beauty from a closer and closer perspective. When we finally surrender our sinful hearts to Him and His love that He showed us through Jesus Christ’s work on the cross, we will be in awe of His beauty.

We live in a beautiful world. Are we looking at it from a wrong perspective and living in sadness and fear and hopelessness?

Or are we looking at it from a different perspective, seeing the light of God’s love and kindness reflecting from others, and then reflecting those qualities ourselves to others?

I’m not suggesting that we hide our heads in the sand, but rather that we

• focus on the beauty of God,
• reflect it to others,
• do something about the problems we are able to help solve, and
• pray about the problems that are too big for us to fix, leaving them in the hands of our very powerful and loving God.

Which brings us back to where our focus should be. When we look at problems from His perspective, we will never be able to dwell in despair.

Today I’m thankful for perspective.

I’m thankful for the beauty in this world.

I’m thankful for light and reflection of light.

I’m thankful I can see the beauty around me.

I’m thankful for God’s beauty and that I can know Him through His Word.

I’m thankful that I can come closer to Him and see His beauty closer up through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I’m thankful that God is big and mighty enough to solve problems that are too big for me.

I’m thankful that He hears my prayers.

I’m thankful for His amazing love and grace.

What about you? Are you thankful for any of the above? What are you thankful for today?