Greener? Or Only LOOKS Greener?

Many years ago, I wrote a story about how the grass always seems greener on someone else's side of the fence. This morning, while drinking my coffee and watching a morning news show, I was reminded of that story, based on the science of the belief.

For your DID YOU KNOW? file: While standing on the grass, gazing over the fence at the lawn on the other side, the grass actually does appear greener! The reasoning behind it is that, when you're looking up ahead, you see the sides of the green blades of grass; while looking down at your own lawn, in addition to the green, you also see the brown dirt beneath it...so it doesn't appear as green.

I like to think of it in relation to God. Here we are, standing in our grass, looking out there to figure out where we're going and how to get there...while God lingers overhead, seeing the Big Picture of our lives.

One of my favorite reads of all time is Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam & Eve. I never get tired of reading it, mainly because I'm fascinated by those stories where the writer takes a common situation...one that everyone knows...and shows another side. Twain takes the classic, holy story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the place where our faith story truly began, and he looks down at it with a close bird's eye view.

After Eve has been forced into his life, Adam writes about her in his diary. One Wednesday, he observed: "Built me a shelter against the rain, but could not have it to myself in peace. The new creature intruded. When I tried to put it out it shed water out of the holes it looks with, and wiped it away with the back of its paws, and made a noise such as some of the other animals make when they are in distress. I wish it would not talk; it is always talking...."

In the many times I've studied the book of Genesis, I never saw Adam and Eve from this angle. Reading Mark Twain's take on them blesses me. It makes me see them, and by extension MYSELF, through new, more personal eyes.

This morning's reminder of how it's all about perspective brought Adam's pain to mind. I can't tell you how many times I've looked into the lives of friends who are married with children and grandchildren, and I've wondered why my life turned out so differently. And just about the time I allow myself to really work up a head of steam over it, one of those friends will look at me and say, "Sometimes I'd give anything to have what you have! I haven't had the house all to myself for more than a few minutes in twenty years."

Perspective. It's all about the angle from which you look into the grass. God has a different plan for each and every one of us. As you've probably discovered countless times, striving to live out someone else's destiny instead of your own leaves you exhausted, dissatisfied and...worst of all...set back to go around the mountain yet again.

So today let's pray together: Thank You, Father, for the beautiful design You have for my life. Help me to always listen for Your voice rather than tuning in to the voices of others; to run toward my destiny with childlike faith and joy; and to stay close to You through prayer and Bible study so that I can make it around the mountain and move on rather than circling it again. In Jesus' name, we pray. For ourselves and for each other. Amen.