This morning I was out feeding the dogs as the sun was coming up.
Looking east across the pasture, the sunrise was beautiful. The morning haze hung low over the field, and the sunlight was just beginning to break through.
I knew the cows were out there.
But I could barely see them.
They were somewhere in that pasture, but between the rising sun, the haze, and the distance, they were little more than shapes in the field.
A few minutes later, I came around to the other side.
Same pasture.
Same cows.
Same morning.
But now I was looking west instead of east.
And suddenly, there they were.
Clear as day.
The cows hadn’t moved much. The fog hadn’t suddenly disappeared. Nothing about what I was looking at had really changed.
What changed was where I was standing.
And I couldn’t help but think about how often the same thing happens when we read God’s Word.
When God’s Word Seems Blurry
There are times when we open the Bible and everything seems clear. A verse speaks directly to something we’re going through, and suddenly pieces that didn’t make sense before begin falling into place.
Other times, we can read the same pages and struggle to understand what God is saying.
Sometimes the problem isn’t the Word.
Sometimes it’s our perspective.
We may approach Scripture already convinced that we know what it should say. We may come to it angry, distracted, worried, or determined to find an answer that agrees with the one we’ve already chosen.
And from that position, things can look pretty blurry.
Proverbs 3:5 tells us:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
That’s difficult sometimes because our own understanding feels pretty convincing.
We see the pasture from where we’re standing.
God sees the whole field.
Same Truth, Different View
When I changed sides of the pasture this morning, I didn’t change reality.
I simply put myself in a position where I could see reality more clearly.
I think that’s an important distinction when it comes to Scripture.
We don’t change God’s Word to fit our perspective.
We allow God’s Word to change our perspective.
Romans 12:2 says:
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Sometimes understanding Scripture requires us to come around to the other side—to set aside our assumptions, quiet the noise in our minds, pray, and ask God to help us see what He’s been showing us all along.
The truth was there before we saw it.
Just like those cows were standing in that pasture the entire time.
God Sees What We Can’t
Isaiah 55:8–9 reminds us:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
There will always be things we don’t completely understand.
There will be circumstances that don’t make sense from where we’re standing.
There will be prayers whose answers we can’t see yet.
And there will be passages of Scripture that require us to wrestle with them, pray over them, and perhaps return to them again and again.
But maybe instead of immediately deciding that something doesn’t make sense, we should ask:
“Lord, is there another way I need to see this?”
Maybe the problem isn’t what’s in front of us.
Maybe we simply haven’t reached the place from which we can see it clearly yet.
This morning, the cows didn’t suddenly appear when I came around the pasture.
They had been there all along.
I just needed to change my perspective.
And sometimes, when God’s Word seems blurry or life doesn’t make sense, perhaps we need to do the same.
Don’t ask God’s Word to move until it fits your view.
Ask God to move you until you can see His.
From the pasture,
The Pasture Pulpit