Friday, October 11, 2013

Tall People See Farther


If you search images on the web for “tall person in crowd,” you will see several where an individual towers over the crowd, whereas most in the crowd would be as tall as the tall man’s stomach.

What immediately struck me about the advantage the tall person has is his farsightedness compared to everyone else who, for the most part, couldn’t see past the back of the head of the person (people) in front of them. For the sake of illustration, imagine you are with a group traveling with that tall person. You are all headed to a tourist attraction that you can see in the distance. Maybe it is a circus, a castle, or a some other site. You can readily see that you need to veer right from where you are and then make a beeline. However, the tall person heads to the left, seemingly in the wrong direction. He doesn’t explain himself, but just keeps reassuring you, “I know what I’m doing, just follow me.”

As he continues to weave in and out of the crowd, you are certain that he does not know what he is doing. You begin to doubt him and want to break off and head in what seems “the right direction.” Still, he is your friend and just maybe he can see something that you cannot see. After a while, you do indeed arrive at the attraction and you marvel at his insight. You ask him, “How did you know?” He replies: “I saw there was something blocking the path of the direct approach. It seemed everyone was stopped and the crowd was getting bigger but they were not approaching the attraction we wanted to visit. I took us around the congestion and here we are!”


This well illustrates Jehovah’s farsightedness. We may not always understand why his word the Bible directs us to live in a particular moral and ethical code of conduct; we may not understand why he reacted to certain situations as they are recounted in the Bible. Nevertheless, the wisest course is to trust that his farsighted perspective is better than anything any man can offer.



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