The Parade...

The pastor who discipled me (John Langlois) taught me well and left me with many truths that I still hold onto today. He had an amazing gift of making biblical truths real and relevant. I was reminded of one of those truths a few days ago by something a friend said. It is a truth on perspective and how it effects the attitudes I have in my life.

My life is like a parade and I am stuck watching the parade from behind a fence, with only a knothole to see it through. That means my view on life is what I have already seen and what is going by at the moment. I can’t see what is coming or how long the parade will last. I also can’t see anything that came before I started watching.

God, because he is omniscient (all knowing), sees the parade from over the top of the fence, from beginning to end. Not only does he see the parade, he also planned the parade and is over-seeing its progress. Nothing happens in the parade that he hasn’t planned or allowed to happen.

This analogy helps me maintain perspective. It reminds that what I see and experience now is only a small part of the big picture or, as one theologian (C.S. Lewis I think) observed, if it were a book, my life would be the first letter of the first word on the first page of a three volume set (and from an eternal point of view that is minuscule). It helps me most when I am hurting or suffering because it helps me see that this life is momentary and that what I am suffering now will be greatly outweighed by the eternal glory God has promised me. The Bible puts it this way:

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18, NIV)

It’s also nice to know that someone bigger than me is in charge and that he knows what is going to happen. I can trust him because he loves me. I can put the parade of my life into his capable hands and sit back and watch what is going to happen next. I know that he is here with me and that he is giving me the strength I need to live. As the parade passes by, he is here giving it meaning.

"God is too good to be unkind. He is too wise to be mistaken. If I cannot trace His hand, I can always trust His heart." - C. H. Spurgeon