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Tag: Joshua

purple sunrise

What if the Sky was Purple?

Purple sunrise

My middle son is not black and white colorblind, but he can’t tell the difference between blues and purples. His brothers love to point out when he’s colored a purple sky or when his clothes don’t match. The funny thing is, he’s the artist of the family. He’s shown the gift of being artistically inclined since kindergarten, and it has only improved with age. Now he’s moved on to creating animated characters through software programs like Blender. He’ll sit for hours, drawing elaborate landscapes and detailed creatures where the leaves ruffle in the breeze or fur ripples down the animal’s back.

It’s as if he can see things in layers – the bones or basic structure overlaid with curves and lines, followed by the intricate details that give a drawing life, and lastly, shading and touches of light. He may not be able to tell the color blue from purple, but he has a unique ability to see shapes, shadows, and details in a way other people do not.

God wants us to see differently.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

After leading the Israelites out of Egypt and up to Canaan, Moses sent out twelve men to collect intel on the city’s people, crops, and fortifications. The men went out and came back, stating that it, indeed, was the promised land, flowing with milk and honey. They also brought back a cluster of grapes, so huge two men had to carry it on a stick between them.

Giant fairytale

They also reported back of the great city’s thick walls, mighty fortifications, and powerful giants. Yes, giants. The men shook in their sandals as they relayed how the Israelites appeared like grasshoppers to the Canaan giants. Only Joshua and Caleb silenced the men and said, “We should go and take possession of the land.” However, it was too late. Fear had already begun to spread like a contagious disease throughout the Israel camp. Because of their doubts and fears, the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, and only Caleb and Joshua ever stepped foot in the promised land.

Joshua and Caleb witnessed the same land as ten other explorers, but whereas the men saw giants, Caleb and Joshua saw victory. Whereas the other explorers took into account their human abilities, Caleb and Joshua considered God’s capabilities.

The world may tell us we’re small, incapable, or colorblind, but God says, look out and see victory.

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Hawk

Perspective – Is Your View that of a Field Mouse or a Hawk?

Hawks can see up to eight times better than humans.This is roughly 20/5 to 20/2 compared to our normal 20/20 vision, and that’s if you don’t already need glasses. Hawk One swooped down from its grand birds-eye view from the top of one of our oak trees and captured something in our yard over the weekend. My son and I watched it spread its wings and strut about with its feathers puffed as if pleased by its catch, then fly off back to its high perch to eat in peace.

We have no idea what it had caught, much to my son’s disappointment and my squeamish stomach’s delight. We don’t have the 1 million per mm photoreceptors that the hawk does. Nor can we distinguish between wide arrays of colors the way a hawk can. We also lack the indented fovea which acts like a zoom lens and allows the hawk to hone in on its subject.

Compared to the hawk, our eyesight is sorely lacking, we’re like blind moles Rabbitfumbling our way around in the dark. Life can seem like that to us. Our problems seem overwhelming, insurmountable. We feel like the poor field mouse or the tiny rabbit vulnerable to an attack at any moment.

I can imagine Joshua and his small army felt exposed and defenseless as they silently circled the wall of Jericho. Yet, Joshua’s small army crumbled those walls with only the blaring of their trumpets and the shouts of their voices (Joshua 6:1-21). Within the Bible, we even more examples of the weak underdog doing the impossible. Gideon, who claimed to be the least in his father’s house, sent home ten thousand soldiers at God’s command and battled the fierce and vast Midianite army with a mere three hundred men (Judges chapters 6 & 7). Elisha’s servant woke up and went outside to stretch one morning and found the city surrounded by the Aramean army. Instead of panicking, Elisha (and I believe he smiled as he did this) asked God to open his servant’s eyes, and God revealed a heavenly army filling the hills with chariots of fire (2 Kings 6:8-22).

With God all things are possible. So why do we act like frightened field mice when we have access to hawk vision. We need to take a step back and get a better perspective. I don’t mean climb up an oak tree or scale building to the rooftop. I mean to get a God perspective. Joshua, Gideon, and Elisha overlooked their smallness to focus on God’s greatness. They realized what Paul later explained in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

As Christ-followers, we have a direct line to God’s omnipotent power. Prayer connects us to the one who created the heavens and breathed the earth into existence. But, we need to stop holding a field mouse mentality, and in faith, turn to the One who is so big, the earth is His footstool. We need to realize that God is bigger than our circumstances. For He is the God of miracles.

“Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

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