A question of perspective

My grandson Tyler taught me an important lesson last week as we were walking on a beach at sunset.All my life, I have been short. I was the littlest kid in school, (not quite true - Bryce Whitaker was smaller, but not by much). When the team captains picked their teams for Red Rover, I was always the last one chosen. In my teens, I watched all my friends get that "growth spurt" - but not me. My only growth spurt was horizontal. Pretty soon I overheard the talk in the office as my employees called me "Short Round" behind my back. Or the customers who called in asking for that short fat guy who came out to see them. They couldn't remember my name, but they sure remembered that rolly polly guy who waddled into their office last week.

Now to Tyler. Mister T wants to be big too, but for now at least, he is a little skinny guy. We were walking along the beach and the sun was setting behind us. As the sun got lower and lower, a strange thing happened. The light was extraordinary - I was wishing I had a camera with me, when Tyler said "Look! Grandpa! I am as tall as you!" as he pointed to our shadows stretching out in front of us. Somehow, with the sun being so close to the horizon and with T being so low to the ground, it made it appear that our shadows were identical. Both of us had really tall skinny guys marching out front ahead of us. I have to admit - It was pretty cool for each of us to see ourselves that way.

It occurred to me then that we were seeing ourselves from a different perspective. I wondered, How does our Heavenly Father see us? Does He see us with our physical limitations?  Does He see the tall skinny shadow men that Tyler and I glimpsed for a moment? Or does He see something more? T-Man showed me that seen from a different perspective, we are much more than we think we are. We have much more potential than we can understand. "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was". (James 1:23-24) I am thankful for this small moment when two guys almost six decades apart could see briefly what manner of men we really are. I hope each of us can really remember what God showed us on that beach in Puerto Rico at sunset, and I don't mean just tall skinny shadows. It is all a matter of perspective.