no boat, the big picture, seeing the big picture, god sees the big picture, perspective
“No boat.”

We have a beautiful old oil painting hanging above our couch in the living room. We found it in an antique store and it’s the perfect piece for that wall. It’s a picture of large distant snowy mountains with a river flowing from the base of them. There are banks on either side of the river lined with beautiful bright orange trees. The river is glassy still showing the reflection of the trees. Its details and colors are stunning.

When we brought it home, we were showing our two-year-old the picture for the first time, pointing out all the pretty details. After showing him, he just looked at us, pointed at the picture and declared, “no boat!” He saw water and when there is water, there should be a boat. In his little mind, the picture was lacking something important. Almost daily now whenever he sees the picture, he points up at it repeating, “no boat, no boat!”

What we see as beautiful and perfect, he sees as incomplete.

My two-year-old son doesn’t appreciate the stunning brush strokes on the still water, the golden colors of the trees in contrast to the snow caped mountains all under a bright blue sky. His mind doesn’t have the capacity to appreciate the beauty that we see in the picture.

We are not too different from two-year-olds. Sometimes in our limited capacity, we only see what’s lacking in the midst of beauty. You see, we are incapable of seeing the whole picture of our life like God sees it. Where He sees stunning views around us and a path that is woven and designed specifically for our life, we complain of having “no boat” (insert that thing you feel like you need that God is not giving you). We are narrow minded and think we know what we need, when God sees the big picture and gives us what is best.

What we might view as incomplete, God sees as beautiful and perfect.

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