A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers 

Psalm 73:16, 17, “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.”  The story is told of six blind men who decided to go to the zoo.  They hired a guide to tell them about all the exotic animals they couldn’t see.  When they came to the elephants, the zoo keeper wanted them to have more than a verbal description, so he allowed them each to feel the elephant.  The first blind man reached out and his hand grabbed the elephant’s tail.  “Aha,” he exclaimed, “the elephant is like a big rope.”  The next man felt a massive elephant leg.  He looked strange, no rope was that big.  “No, the elephant is like a large log or tree.”  He was sure of this.  The third blind man walked forward and ran straight into the elephant’s side, whereupon he pronounced that, “The elephant is really a big wall.”  Next, another of the blind men reached out and took hold of one of the elephant’s ears.  It must have tickled, because the elephant wiggled the large ear, causing the fourth man to exclaim, “Oh, see this, the elephant is like a big fan.”  The fifth blind man decided that the first four were all slightly daft and they couldn’t be describing the same creature, so he carefully walked up and put out his hand, the elephant raised his trunk to the man who felt it and grinned in wonder. “My friends, it is obvious the elephant is like a huge snake.”  The final man was totally confused, he walked forward and reached out, hoping to find the truth, and encountered a tusk.  He paused and brightened, “I understand, the true nature of the elephant is this, he is a sword.”  The zoo keeper and guide smiled at one another, knowing that none had seen the big picture.  It’s amazing how your perspective differs depending on your vantage point.  The Psalmist in our text is wrestling with the age old question, of why bad things happen to good people (particularly him).  Only when God lifts him to a new level of relationship with Him, does he see the big picture—that the wicked are not doing as well as they think, and he is not as bad off as he first thought.  Today, allow God to lift you to a new perspective and in doing so you will gain new insight into the troubling questions that plague your mind.  Like the Psalmist, instead of focusing just on your problems, begin focusing on how great God is—a God who is bigger than all your problems combined, and in doing so, you will gain a new perspective of the love and grace of our heavenly Father, for this new day.