This is my annual birthday post. To read previous posts, you can click here.
As a child I had a toy kaleidoscope. Like all kaleidoscopes, when you looked in, you could spin the wheel and make a variety of different yet mezmerising images. However, when you looked from the outside, the colorful pieces just looked like a jumble mess at the bottom of the toy. The change in impression had nothing to do with the placement of the pieces, and everything to do with your perspective on them.
Over the last year, I’ve learned a lot about perspective. I’ve learned that my trust in God has nothing to do with my understanding of how the pieces fall, but everything to do with Who I understand Him to be. If God is just, I need not fear my enemies; If God is truth, I need not fear lies; If God is good, I need not fear my future; And if God is love, I need not fear eternity, as long as my trust and my faith are in Him. My perspective on this life changes when I consider things from the perspective of Heaven. Whatever befalls me here is incomparable to the riches of glory that await me there.
And unlike what many well-intending Christians say, I’ve come to believe that we may never understand the “why” of events on this Earth. We may not ever fully know how God uses our grief for His glory, or how the loss we’ve experienced brought about His Kingdom’s gain. From what I can tell, Scripture never promises us an understanding of the detailed plans of God. But we are promised Him. If we turn and put our confidence in Him, we are promised an eternity with the Creator of the Universe. And when we maintain that perspective, all the pieces are beautiful.