Our daughter recently read a book about the artist Fanny Brate. It talked about how Fanny Brate used perspective to make her paintings look more realistic. Perspective, in this case, is when an artist paints things in the distance to look smaller. In reality, the object would be much larger if it were next to what the image was focusing on. In this specific example, the artist painted a house in the distance, while the focus of the painting was on children who looked closer and bigger. As we read through each page together, I couldn’t help but think about our own perspective.
With social media at our finger tips 24/7, our perspective can become a little clouded at times.
We scroll and see happy married couples, 15 or 20 years into it. But what we don’t see is the way they may treat each other off camera or the battles they have fought to make it to that landmark anniversary.
We see perfect corners of people’s homes – clean and tidy – organized and perfect. What we don’t see is what’s not pictured or the work, time, and maybe even stress it’s taken to make that space photo worthy. We see large houses with manicured lawns and then maybe we look around at our small postage stamp front yard and think, “I wish I had that.”
We see families in curated outfits smiling perfectly. What we don’t see is the meltdown that happened just minutes before or what someone may have said through gritted teeth to get their children to smile and look at the camera.
When we compare our life to curated squares on social media, we’re focusing on the house in the distance. Social media gives us a quick snapshot, and just like the house in the distance, it’s hard to see the details up close. When we focus on the far off things, we fail to look at the beauty that God is creating right in front of our own eyes – in our own homes.
Satan loves when we compare our God given gifts to those we see on social media. In Job 1:7 “The Lord asked Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ [He responded,] ‘From roaming through the earth and walking around on it.” He is here looking to steal, kill, and destroy as John 10:10 describes. Comparison, too, does just that. It steals, kills, and destroys. Galatians 6:4 teaches us that “...[we] should examine our own work, and then we will have a reason for boasting in ourselves alone, and not in respect to someone else.” It's saying: Let us not compare ourselves to others. Rather, let's look at our own work and appreciate it.
Friends, if you’re looking at the house in the far off distance, let’s refocus our perspective. The life we have is a gift. The people around us are gifts. Let’s focus on that and most importantly, let us thank God for the gifts that He has given each of us.
“Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
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