What You Don't See

The other day I recognized the barking of our neighbor's golden retriever. I stepped out onto our deck and was greeted by this picture.
The deer appears to be baiting the retriever.
She backs off, then hops forward and stomps the ground with her front hooves.
The dog darts from side to side, it's tail held high. I wonder what would happen if the fence were suddenly removed.
Looks like a stalemate.
For twenty minutes the two creatures eye each other, neither one backing down.
Why doesn't the deer simply meander off and graze at a more pleasant pasture?
Silly deer.

But what the camera doesn't capture is the rest of the situation.
About twenty feet behind the doe are her two half-grown fawns.
Ah, now the picture makes sense. Mom deer thinks she's protecting her kids.

Sometimes we get so close to a situation we can't see the whole picture. We see only a slice and make judgments based on a small piece of information. We need someone to remind us to back up and look with a more objective distance.

Our Christian faith calls us to "set our minds on things above, not on earthly things."
Faith calls us to see the entire picture, inside and outside of history. Our physical eyes see only a miniscule portion of the Kingdom in which we live. But, by faith we choose to see through God's heavenly perspective.
Losing a job
Suffering some kind of set-back
An illness. . .

I have a choice to make each day and in every situation. I can choose to stay with my nose pressed up way too close to my "photo," ignoring the entire picture.
Or, by faith, I can choose to see the unseeable, which is, actually, the real picture.

"For we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen." (2 Cor. 4:18)