SEPTEMBER PERSPECTIVE
Can it really be September? I mean, really?
July and the Dog Days of August are history, but it seems no one told my thermometer or the meteorologists yet. Those sultry days of August were called Dog Days because of the ancient belief that Sirius, the brightest star in the Large Dog constellation, was so close to the sun, and thus caused the extremely hot weather for several weeks.
Dog Days was a term first used by the Greeks and passed on to the Romans. It seems they didn’t like the heat any better than I do because they sacrificed a brown dog to the star Sirius in hopes of appeasing the star and getting relief from the scalding temperatures. Their perspective dictated their behavior. I’m happy our perspective and understanding is a bit different.
Thinking about perspective . . . during those days of August heat, a hurricane often cuts a swath across the Atlantic, sometimes dumping rain on Caribbean Islands, and then swishing Florida, or perhaps slamming the Gulf Coast broadside with strong winds and torrential rains. Hurricane Isaac did this a few years ago. While many were praying for protection from the high winds and for their homes to be spared, some of us were praying that Isaac might bring some much-needed rain during a drought.
Perspective again . . .
During that time, the space station sent to earth some incredible photos of Isaac as it sat brewing, stewing, and gaining strength in the Gulf for a few days. That storm was enormous, and one could sense the immense power just viewing those images on zoom. It looked like it just might consume the whole earth. However, when I looked at the pictures without the zoom, I saw the storm from a different perspective. It looked quite small and relatively un-newsworthy, unless you were in its direct path.
Hmmm . . . perspective again.
It seems that our perspectives are shaped by where we are, what we know, and how we perceive things. I’d say given those parameters, my perspective just might be quite limited. But what’s exciting is that we are children of the One who is aware of the hurricanes forming in the Atlantic, the fireball falling in China, the firestorms in California, and Sirius all at the same time! And even more, He is present with the praying child on the island in the path of the storm and with the persecuted Palestinian Christian on his knees in Hebron. Maybe, just maybe, if we dropped the idea that the world revolves around us, we might have more of a sense of His perspective.
