kaleidoscope

Twisted

 

 “Thus says the Lord. My ways are not your ways. Neither are my thoughts your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:4.

I love kaleidoscopes. They are such simple toys, made of a cardboard or metal tubes, an opaque lens and colorful pieces of glass or plastic. When you hold the lens up to the light, you can see the colored pieces for a shape Twisting the tube just a bit shifts the colored pieces and completely changes the pattern. It can be mesmerizing to watch the colors and shapes change and can keep a child, or an adult, entertained. The image depends on the position the pieces are in.

I have discovered something in the last few weeks. What we see in life depends on our viewpoint. One small change in our perspective can completely change what we know and understand. For example, I had an experience the other day when I was complaining about a situation that occurred often when I was growing up. My husband saw the situation from a different perspective and shared with me what he saw. I felt like my memory shifted like the pieces in the kaleidoscope. Things that had made no sense to me suddenly became clear. I could see more clearly why I reacted the way I did. Old resentments and jealousy were shown in a different light, and have become easier to overcome.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 55, “Thus says the Lord. My ways are not your ways. Neither are my thoughts your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."We think things should work one way but they don't work out that way. There is a country song that says, "Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers." I am not saying that we should use country songs to dictate our theology, but the sentiment does support what we read in this verse.

One reason our thoughts are not like God's thoughts is that we canot see the whole picture, but only a very small piece. Two verses address this The first is 2 corinthians 4:18. We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. There is a whole area of reality that we cannot see but the thing that happen in the spirit realm are as real, or possibly more real as the things that happen that we can see. I have seen it compared to what is going on backstage during a performance that we don't realize.
Loook at this beautiful verse from Isaiah 46.

9Remember what happened long ago,
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me.
10I declare the end from the beginning,
and ancient times from what is still to come.
       I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.

Not only does God see things that we can't but he sees it in the context of eternity. We look at what is happening right now and can't understand. 

You can feel secure when your life is beig twisted and shaken. It is being held by your loving, almighty father.