Can you trust an image?
Have you ever tried to draw a rabbit? Check out this drawing of a Rabbit.
What about a duck? Look at the picture again. Focus your eyes on the left side of the sketch, and go to the right slowly. By the time you get to the eyes, you might see a duck. Little bit of a "Wow" factor there.
The above picture came from the Art of Play web site, where there are more images to consider...
https://www.artofplay.com/blogs/articles/fun-with-ambiguous-images
Art of Play has card games, puzzles, more games, home goods, toys, and books. www.artofplay.com These are gifted, and creative people, providing wonderfully creative things for the rest of us. You will find many more "wows" if you follow that link.
Here is an interesting Forbe's magazine article about Art of Play... https://www.forbes.com/sites/nealtaparia/2020/07/15/how-to-succeed-in-business-by-following-your-passion/?sh=2b84a3713279
Our perception, or conclusion, can change. Sometimes we need to take a different perspective of how we look at something. The variables may point to the same conclusion, then again, they may not.
Before we dig our heels in on what we know about people, places, or things, we should remember, we have limited perspective.
An example from work...
How many yellow totes are there?
Not easy is it.
How about now?
The spot where pictures were taken is the same. The variables that changed were, time of day, and the sun's angle. The first picture is about 4PM, with the afternoon sun from the west. The sunlight bounces off the sides, and all the totes look pretty much the same. The second picture is about 8AM. Notice the shadows, as the sun is coming from the east. The light filters through the totes, and the true colors are visible. Sometimes we have to walk all around something, mentally, and literally, and consider the variables.
Perspective - As a Management style...
I've had bosses that decided quickly, then hit things with a big hammer. Most of the time, this was before gathering all the facts. And the worse part is, they never looked back.
On the other hand, I've been fortunate to have a few bosses that might say, "Let me look into it," or, "I'll check on that." So instead of a knee jerk decision, they delayed their actions and decision, and considered the variables. The best ones even re-assessed the whole thing later, and made more adjustments.
The more important the decision, the more one should consider perspective.
Perspective - Eternal considerations...
One of the first things we learn about God is from, 1 John, 4:8. "God is Love."
What a wonderful place to begin. Children, and all of us for that matter, understand the idea of love.
Time goes by, and life happens. We make choices, and we celebrate birthdays. Our variables, and our perspective changes. It gets harder and harder to see the "Wow" things in life. We realize, there must be more, and that we are missing something.
Is God still Love? Yes! And a whole lot more. We learn that God is also Grace, Forgiveness, Holy, Just, and a bunch of other things. The latter things add to, and do not diminish the original, "God is Love."
Hebrews 13:8, speaks to Christ's unchanging nature. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever."
We change, Christ does not. Our sinful nature requires a sinless, forgiving God. John 3:16 comes to mind.
We have to admit that there are a lot of wrong things, and that we are born into that wrong behavior. We are drawn to the wrong things. Job 14:1, says, "Man, who is born of a woman, is few of days, and full of trouble." And, Job 5:7, "Man was born for trouble, as surely as sparks fly upwards." What do we spend our time and lives chasing after?
As Believers, the days still pass by quickly, and some of our variables keep changing. If we seek God, what we know about God can be strengthened, and proven over and over.
We are all unique and at the same time, made in God's image. Genesis 1:27. "God created man in His own image..."
As we grow, in age and experiences, we learn that we need to trust God. We have to change our perspective, to depend more on God and less on ourselves. God sees the beginning, right now, and the end. God sees both sides of the tote.
We are limited, and we will never have all the facts, 1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us that, "We see through the glass dimly,..."
When life gets complicated, and doesn't make much sense, we can refer back to that 1John 4:8, verse: "God is love," verse. When we re-orient ourselves to that starting point, things make more sense.
Time, in our human perspective is described in days, months, years, even light years. What about eternity past, and eternity future? We have to change our perspective of time to consider eternity.
Maybe we can't always trust an image.
But we can trust, and believe in God, whose image we somehow reflect.
