Perspective

The other day, the girls and I hiked up the mountain near Old Faithful to catch a glimpse of the eruption from above.  As we were waiting for Old Faithful, in the distance, we saw the Castle Geyser erupt.

The Castle Geyser is, though somewhat predictable, temperamental and only erupts every 9-13 hours or so, unless it has a minor eruption at any time during the waiting period, at which point it becomes unpredictable again.  Needless to say, being so finicky, people don’t flock to it like they do to the more predictable Old Faithful.  Those that do are devoted, though, and are happy to wait for hours, just in case.  We’ve done the same for the Great Fountain Geyser, so I can understand the pull.

From our vantage point, we could see the magnificent geyser, as well as the group of devoted faithfuls who had waited.  (Look closely in the photo and you’ll see them, too.)

A few minutes later, our faithful friend erupted in all its glory.

Seeing it from above was incredible, and I was glad that we had made the climb.  In the picture, you can see the crowd that had gathered there, as well.

I couldn’t help but think, as I was up there, about perspective.  The crowd at Old Faithful would not have been able to see anything more than steam from the Castle Geyser, and may have been unaware of the magnificent, half-hour eruption.  The crowd at Castle would have been waiting for so long that Old Faithful’s magnificent show would have held little interest for them, as well.

Little do both crowds know that the waterworks, the seismic forces, all of it, are so interconnected between the geysers of Yellowstone, and the big picture is a miracle.

How often are we so focused on one trial, one facet of our lives, one problem, one blessing?  We lack the perspective to see the incredible network of things that all work together to make our lives what they are.  We may be so worried about a trial that we are undergoing that we miss all of the other blessings and miracles at work in our lives.

Only with a grander view can we gain the perspective we need to see more.

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