It seemed like an odd comment. I was backpacking through the Scottish highlands, and had overnighted in the town of Fort William. I wanted to get a good view of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles.
“You’ll get a good view from the train station,” my B&B hostess told me. “It’s far enough away to see clearly.”
Far enough away? I wasn’t expecting that. I usually operated under the assumption that to see something clearly, I needed to be near it.
“If you’re too close, you can’t tell which mountain is the highest,” she continued.
“There’s a parable in there somewhere,” I wrote in my journal later that day.
As the years have gone by, I’ve come to see the wisdom in recognizing that distance—in both space and time—can help us see certain things more clearly.
Some years ago I was going through one of life’s rough patches. To get a sense of perspective I jotted down a list of difficult situations that God had already seen me and my family through. Serious illnesses. Job losses. Complex, stressful work projects. An IRS audit.
How big each of them seemed at the time I was going through them. But in retrospect I could see that God was bigger than all of them. And sometimes when new challenges loom large, I need to remind myself of this.
Are there ways in which distance has helped you see things more clearly? Please comment below!
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