May 17, 2007
Creative Editing
We know there are always two sides to every story. Whether it’s a news program, a reality TV show or the retelling of a story, there’s an element of creative editing involved. Although we might hear only portions of a story, the reality is we’ll never know all the details behind every situation. It’s my perception that Christians often feel an obligation to know the whole story before they can offer an opinion or view. After all, who wants to be labeled a gossip or be charged with leading someone astray for not having all the facts? Actually, I think God has told us just enough of the story so we’ll have the desire to express our opinions and views.
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Gail;
-----The other day I needed to make a point to my daughters. In preparation, I laid a sheet of paper over the cover of a magazine and traced the picture by making just enough variously spaced dots so that my tracing was almost, but not quite, recognizable as that of the fossil skull pictured on the magazine cover. Later, when I had my girls’ attention, I held up the tracing and asked them what it pictured. Neither of them had a clue. I then held up the magazine so they could see the front cover and asked them what they saw. One girl said she saw a magazine, the other (thankfully) said she saw a skull.
-----“No,” I said, “ it is a magazine, but what we see on the cover are just millions of tiny, differently colored dots. They are arranged so closely and carefully that seen together they form in our minds the perception of a fossil skull.” Again, I held my dot tracing up and asked them what they saw now. They both recognized the pattern of the skull in the dots.
-----Whether or not we have enough information to form an accurate perception of the reality of a matter, that perception is affected by our culture in general and our life experiences more specifically. If I described an object as twelvish-ish feet by six-ish feet and having four wheels most of us would think of a car. But someone from a less technological culture may think of a circular flour mill with four six foot, stone grinding wheels spindled to crossing axles such that they would roll in a twelve foot circle.
-----I think God gave us just enough information so that by humility we will perceive what God wants to communicate, or in arrogance we will perceive what we want to receive without being the wiser. We then proceed to growing into sheep or goats during our lifetimes, each of us being more or less sure of the perceptions we have decided to own. God alone, knowing the true picture that all of the dots form, will be the ultimate judge.
-----Yet, in some parts of that big picture, He has given us plenty of dots to distinguish between car and flourmill, if not between Chevrolet and Ford. Some of us know more of the dots than others. Some of us are more able to draw better perceptions by fewer dots than others. So, when we talk with people we should try to stay aware of how much information is available and how accurate a perception is possible, at least by our own knowledge and understanding. We can then know our limits of discernment in the matter and our place in the conversation. That will free us to not only inform, but also to reveal some about who we are, and even more, to simply entertain, because fellowship extends beyond the mere count of dots that we are given. And what anyone has to say is important at least by the fact that that person is himself a dot.
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