STUDY 1: THE BIGGER PICTURE

  

Much often than not we see differences in different people. I mean, no matter how identical twins resemble, the similarities will be great, but they will be differences; the voice tone, walking posture, approaches to life, something will definitely show that -THEY ARE DIFFERENT, and that difference is beautiful. One person may love fried rice for instance, and the other doesn’t, the other may love swimming while one is aqua phobic, you see, differences!

Skin colour, hair texture, eye colour, nails, height, lip colour, all these come to us differently, they are unique to us but we will get it totally wrong if we believe that all there is to us is what we see on the outside.

Have you ever seen a dark, tall beautiful lady? How about a fair, curly haired handsome guy? Oh! these are fair to look upon, especially if the guy is broad chested, with a perfect 6 packs macho figure and the lady is with a flawless smile and a perfect figure 8 shape. You know what I mean right?

They both look flawless, adorable and very much admirable, but that’s just about what we can see.

But do you know there is something much more about what we cannot see?

There is more to you and I than what our physical eyes can see. If it were not so, then our definition of SELF would be drawn from a very narrow perspective, very narrow.

It is not about whether we are tall or short, we have long or blond hair, pink or white lips, while they are a beautiful part of us, they in themselves cannot and should not define us, because if we let only our looks define us, we neglect a major part of ourselves -our spirits and our souls- whose form we cannot see. 

We are an encompassing creature made with distinctive traits, a thoughtfully created breed, fashioned after another KIND and as we through this series together, I am hopeful that the truths we learn will thoroughly transform us.

EVALUATION (Please Answer Yes/No to these)

Do I get intimidated by other people’s looks?

Do I feel pressured to look a certain way in order to fit into the society? And do I feel sad if I can’t look that way? 

Do I feel bad about my look (the me, I see in the mirror everyday)?

Do I feel that I need to work extra hard on myself in order to be loved and accepted?

WHAT ABOUT THE BIGGER PICTURE AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Hundreds and hundreds of years after the disobedience of man in Eden, the fall, and the prophesy that the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent in Genesis 3:15, there lived a young seventeen-year-old lad in the city of Canaan, his name was Joseph.

Joseph lived like every teenage boy would, he had dreams and a hope for a beautiful future yet in the midst of that he was confronted with, envy, hatred and rejection by his elder brothers who later plotted and sold him off to a foreign country and to a future that was totally unknown to him.

Just before we talk more about Joseph, let me share a little of his history…

He was one of Jacob’s favourite son, Yes! Jacob, who was later renamed Israel, Jacob the son of Isaac, who was the child of Promise to Abraham, do you still remember Abraham the father of faith?

The man God made a covenant with and promised that through his seed all nations of the earth will be blessed, Abraham was the earthly great grandfather of little Joseph, the young boy who lived on earth and innocently, probably didn’t know that they was a prophesy God gave concerning the seed of the woman in Genesis 3 or that father Abraham had been promised that through  his Seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

Living his normal life, Joseph would never had known that he featured greatly in that big plan; the fulfilment of God’s prophesy in Genesis 3 and the great promise to Abraham -And in thy Seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Genesis 22:18

How would he had ever known? Yet he had a role in this big plan, a role to preserve the lineage of Israel so that the Messiah would be born and He would bruise the head of the serpent and in Him all nations of the earth will be blessed. There was a plan, but Joseph didn’t know, there was a bigger picture but all Joseph could see was his prevailing circumstances.

Is it not the same as what we have today? We only get to see what is around us, but does it change the fact that there is a bigger picture? That we feature in a bigger picture and certainly so!

Our life is not limited by environment, the circumstances around us, the seeming inabilities or even the pain we get to face and bear as we ride through life, It is the reality of the bigger picture that makes us realize that much more than the things we see, there is a bigger picture that we feature in.

We feature in a bigger plan and all we need to keep doing like Joseph did is to stick to the plan; Joseph in Potiphar’s house had said he wouldn’t defile himself with his master’s wife, that was part of his commitment to the plan. 

So, do you now see that you feature in a plan you may not have even realized? Do you see that your existence is key and much more than you may have thought?

The enemies trick is to get us to be dissatisfied with OURSELVES, it’s a distraction plan to keep us from fitting perfectly into the bigger picture and you see why we must let go of those dissatisfactions and embrace fully our differences, so we can fit perfectly into that bigger picture.

There is plan that had gone before us and you and I serve a role in that big plan…

You are much than what you see, you have a place in the bigger picture!