SEEING DIFFERENTLY

11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

I remember the story told of a group of blindfolded men who were asked to describe an elephant using their sense of touch. Depending on which part of the elephant they held, their descriptions included words such as fluffy, tough, hard, slim, and even smooth. All of them were right, but none of them was accurate. Therefore, while individual perspectives matter, whole perpective is crucial.

The Gospel account reveals an interesting observation: Mary was first to the tomb, before the sun rose but upon seeing the stone rolled away, she went to get Peter and John. Both entered the tomb, and only saw the linen cloth and head piece. Mary however stood outside, stooped down to look and saw two angels in the tomb.

Our question might be: Why did Peter and John not see them? It’s because it was not given to them to see in that moment. The text that came to mind was 1 Corinthians 13:9 “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part [for our knowledge is fragmentary and incomplete].

We don’t all see the same things, and neither do we all see the same way, God has set it so. In that regard, He will not tell you everything and He will not show you everything there is to know. That would make you ‘all knowing’, a class only sat in by God himself. In fact, even if He wanted to, you cannot physically handle that amount of information.

Just because two people look at the same thing, from the same spot, doesn’t mean they see the same thing

Just because we listen to the same instruction does not mean we hear the same thing.

#sly