Perspective.

Last Thursday we found ourselves the recipients of another snow storm. First, it started raining about 3:00 in the morning, and then about 8:30 the rain turned to snow. It was so beautiful. We're not used to having this much snow around here. :)



By the time it started snowing, because of the rain that came first, there was already a thick layer of ice underneath the snow.


The weight of the ice caused lots of broken trees and lots of downed power lines.




Late yesterday afternoon, the clouds finally receded and the sun peeked out for just a little while before night fell. This morning we awoke to a brilliantly white, beautiful, sparkling world.



Jacob said to me, "Mama, look how sparkly the snow is." And we talked about how the Bible says God will wash our sins to be as white as snow. It had never dawned on me before - in regard to that scripture - how sparkly snow is. Not just white, but glistening like diamonds. Isn't that amazing? From sinful to sparkly. :)


I had several errands to run this morning, and as I drove around town I was stunned by the beauty of the sun shining on the ice-covered trees. It was...well...stunning! Breathtaking. I almost ran into the curb a few times because I was so enthralled by the magnificence of it. I just wanted to stare and soak in every single second of it.



After I had finished a couple of errands, I suddenly noticed that the trees weren't glistening and shining the way they had been before. I thought, "Oh, Lord, all the ice is melted already? I'm not ready for it to go away...it was so beautiful!" I kept driving, looking at the trees...no more shining...and I was sad.

Then I noticed that there was still snow in the trees. What? Why would the ice be melting and the snow not be? Suddenly it dawned on me...the a-ha moment. I looked in my rear-view mirror, and there is was - the brilliant, shining, beautiful scene I thought had disappeared.



I realized I was on the wrong side of the sun. From this vantage point, the light wasn't reflecting off the ice, causing the brilliant display I had seen before. But when I was on the right side of the sun, there it was. Beautiful, shining, glistening.

It all depended on my perspective.

And it made me think....how often is my view of life skewed by my perspective? When things in life are looking drab, dreary, joyless....maybe I'm on the wrong side of the Son.

Now, I'm not saying I think we can get on Jesus' "bad side", but I do think a lot of times my view of life gets out of whack because I'm not positioning myself in a place to be able to see life through His brilliance and light and love.

I definitely took it as food for thought. For those times when life seems gray and heavy, I may need a change in perspective....maybe I need to move closer to the Son and ask Him to shine the light of His Spirit into my life.

God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5