It's All Perspective

It was a crisp, clear morning. "The last time we had weather like this," the pilot explained, "we could see Charlotte from here!" Unfortunately, I was seated facing backwards in the aircraft. All that I could see were the faces of the people sitting across from me and all the equipment that was stored "aft-cabin."

My chatty-buddy fit her helmet-microphone so close to her mouth that the black foamy thing was literally resting on her teeth. She repeated the GPS coordinates of our destination and announced our departure with "four souls" on board. Apparently she knows that you have to "eat the microphone" for your voice to be heard. Serious-lady RN was scrunching up her face in concentration as she drew some large number of CC's of medication as precaution for the patient we were about to meet. The bunge cords were holding the barf bags neatly in the slot on the "wall" between them, just beside the emergency flashlight.

As we flew along, I could peer out the back window of the aircraft and, um, look for other planes. I dug up that memory (from one of my prior lives when I attempted a pilot's license) that trying to spot a plane while flying is like trying to see the point of a pencil when it is placed directly in front of you point-first. It takes a lot of concentration. And imagination.

When we turned to make our landing, the whole world turned sideways. Wow, it WAS very clear out there. Still, I can't tell where Charlotte is, nor any other landmark in this part of the state. It looks like that tree is going to slide into that cloud right about now... oh, and there's the water tower that the radio communications guy said to look out for. Whee!

It's NOT a hard landing. This pilot is a pro.

I wonder if that's how God experiences us, from all kinds of perspectives. Faces, souls, barf-bags, and GPS coordinates. What we see as "sideways" is simply the way things are for God. My hunch is that God's experience of us is creative, unique, and always new. We flew safely in God's love and landed in God's grace. Fluid and still. Thanks be to God!

So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. - Colossians 3:1 (The Message)

What is your perspective at this moment?