Context

"we do not know"

Job 36:26

I was watching a TV show a few weeks ago, when two characters who were talking, out on the street, noticed a $20 bill on the ground.  One of them remarked on the fact that a $20 bill on the ground is very different than a $20 bill in your wallet. 

In your wallet, it's valuable, hard-earned and very much yours.  When you pick it up off the ground, it somehow seems even more valuable, and you might be feeling a little guilty or defensive as you look around to see if anyone might notice or have designs on it.  Or you might have a feeling of excitement, or that it's your "lucky day".  Pleasant surprises lift our spirits and leave us looking for more.  Not greedily, I don't think, just remembering that wonderful surprises do happen.

Anyhow, one character summed this difference up by saying, "Context changes a thing."  And since watching that, I've been reminded of that truth many times.   1 Corinthians says that a woman's long hair is a glory to her, but find a piece of that hair in your dinner, and it's not so glorious.

Or, as Albert Einstein explained relativity, five minutes talking with a pretty girl (or a good-looking guy, if you prefer) is quite different than five minutes with your hand on a hot stove. 

Chocolate sauce on ice cream?  Yes, please.   Chocolate sauce on pepperoni ice cream?  I think not.  Not even when I was pregnant.

See what I mean? 

Here are some other examples:

Snow-covered mountain?

Nope.  Iceberg.

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Rain. 

Rainbow. 

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New life.

Breakfast.

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And how about these two pictures:

I have no idea who these people are.  I took this in an airport.  What do you think is the story here?  Siblings?  Lifelong friends?  Romance?  And why were they apart?  For how long?  No idea what the context is here.

How about this one?  What's the relationship between these two?  What is the circumstance?  This one I know.  That's my dad and his sister on the day of the memorial service for my aunt, their sister.  I know the context of that photo, and it says a lot to me. 

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We know so little of what there is to know.  And still we doubt Him.  Still we insist on our way.  Still we judge.  

But still He loves.

~ "God thunders marvelously with His voice;

He does great things which we cannot comprehend.

He is excellent in power,

In judgement and abundant justice." ~

Job 37:5,23

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