Seeing Things Rightly

I had the oddest analogy pop in my head today. I'm reading this book in my women's group at church called Shattered Dreams by Larry Crabb. In the first chapter he talks about seeing things rightly and how when our dreams are shattered we wonder why God didn't do something about it. We end up living an empty, miserable, bitter life wondering what if God had done something instead of nothing. At the end of the chapter he brings up the idea of seeing things rightly and that's when this thought popped in my mind.

It's very easy to fall into the woes me mode, blaming God for doing nothing, when all along He's working things out for our greater good but we don't have eyes to see just yet. As a believer, we may not see things clearly until we get to heaven but I firmly believe God gives us glimpses of what He's doing.

The crazy thought that popped in my mind is this: I have a cat named Snowbiscuit. She was given to us when she was less than 8 weeks old. She was solid white except for the very tip of her tail that was a light gray. I never really wanted a white cat as I didn't find them very beautiful. The cool thing is she has a great personality and loves her family, especially the kids. As she became assimilated into our family her color grew on me but I never really found her very pretty like other cats. Over time the most amazing thing happened, her color started to change. There were no spots on this cat anywhere except for the very tip of her tail. I have no idea where her coloring came from but slowly over several years she developed into a gorgeous calico cat. This may sound silly but it provides a great visual for me. All I saw when I looked at Snowbiscuit was a plain white cat with a unique personality. God saw so much more. He made a beautiful creature which He clothed in a multitude of colors. Unfortunately, with my limited vision I couldn't see it until she physically changed. God on the other hand already knew what she would turn into.

Over the past two years I pretty much developed a pessimistic attitude. I convinced myself that I had to see the worst scenario because anything else was not reality and I was just fooling myself. But what if I changed my thinking and started to see the positives and the beauty. Would I be fooling myself every time? Would I be living in a false reality or delusional? How much better would my life be if I started to see things differently? Would I be happier or sadder? Is there really anything wrong with seeing the bright side of things and believing change is possible? Change happened before my eyes with my cat. Change is happening before my eyes with my husband. Could it be that I haven't been seeing things rightly after all?

Maybe it's time I start asking God to uncover my eyes so I can see things from His perspective. Maybe it's time to stop what I've been doing, which hasn't worked too well, and see if there is a better way.