Changing Perspective

Not long ago I was dressing up for some event and wanted to wear a certain pair of earrings. I went to get them from my jewelry box only to discover that one of them was missing. I looked all over the dresser and the floor, but couldn’t find the other one, so reluctantly chose a different pair. A couple of days later, I went through a similar search, but left frustrated. Later, I came back and decided to do a more thorough search. I searched the floor, felt under the cabinet and looked under the bed. I picked up everything on my dresser and looked under it. I rifled through every item there, but still couldn’t locate that crazy, rotten, little earring that now seemed to be hiding from me on purpose. I decided to give up again. I turned to go, but as I did so, took one last glance in the mirror. Suddenly, there it was! Right there, in the mirror, hanging from the backside of one of my glass candleholders, was my lost earring! How it got there, I didn’t know, nor care. I had finally found it!

Strange how we can be looking for something—even diligently searching for it—but it can still continue to elude us. I never considered using the mirror as a way to enhance my search—as a way of gaining a different perspective. And yet, even though I only changed my perspective for only a brief moment, my eyes immediately spotted the object of my search. I think our search for God can be very much like my search for my lost earring. We keep a picture in our mind of what we think He’s like, hoping that when we come across Him we’ll recognize Him. We look everywhere we think He might be hiding, only to discover He isn’t in any of those places. We become frustrated—even angry—that He is hiding from us (on purpose, of course) and decide to give up.

Consider for a moment, a different perspective on this issue. Consider the possibility that God isn’t hiding from us. Consider the possibility that God is actually trying to get our attention. Consider the possibility that the picture we have in our mind of what God is like is so flawed that we simply aren’t able to recognize Him when He shows Himself to us. I invite you to evaluate some of your ideas about God—recognizing them for what they are—and then try to think about them with me from a slightly different perspective. Perhaps, like my lost earring, God has actually been in plain sight all along.