Kaleidoscope

A few months ago my niece spent some time at my home. When she was here, she brought with her a kit to make a kaleidoscope. The outside had a few templates and colored pencils would complete the design that would be most evident at first glance of the toy. She colored it quickly and beautifully as was no surprise to me. It was ready to be assembled with the mirror to give the view of the pretty design. The chamber of shapes was neat. There was confetti and different shapes that float in a circular chamber.
When the completed kaleidoscope is in use, only a small wedge is truly seen and a reflection is repeated to make a new design. The shapes within the circular chamber aren't always recognized, but a fantastic pattern emerges in its place. As the chamber is rotated, the view changes and dazzles eyes, but the whole of reality is never seen again.
I had a dream where there was some type of calamity where the inside of a shopping center was in shambles. There were people and merchandise scattered awry and I was a news reporter. My associate and I were given a few moments to discuss and witness the scene and then we were to report on it. I'm ashamed to say that I saw the clothes first scattered and thought about the mess. Upon closer observation, I saw the people. Their lives shaken. They were being photographed in their various states of crisis. Some girls with their legs exposed as they had fallen in skirts. My dream didn't have blood, but there was obvious injury by the position of people. When it was time to report, I could only think of a kaleidoscope. Even I, with a first hand view could never see the full picture.
In life, I often miss reality because I am dazzled by the piece of the world I can see and it's distortions. Satisfied with the picture I get, I don't look for more. The world is in chaos! People are dying! I saw a picture of a world leader who recently died with a joke beside it as he was known as a Tyrant and his enemies are gloating. It disturbs me that this was a lost soul. I chose not to look at that image again. I will shuffle the images that are in my view until it is pleasing again and forget what is hidden. This is the way I carry on day after day. I shuffle the bad until its out of view.
I was going to say that this is an epidemic in Christianity, but I will dare to expand it to say this is an epidemic in America. Some people choose a pleasant view and some choose to keep an offended view, others have a mixture and feel they have perspective. Really only a very slim few are truly not looking through kaleidoscope view.
I Corinthians 13 says that we see through a glass dimly. Some translations say that we see a dim reflection in a mirror... So true! Like the kaleidoscope view, the picture that we see this side of heaven will never be complete. That doesn't mean that we should ignore what we choose not to see. In fact, everything that will come into our view in the future is affected by the portion that we cannot see at the present. In a kaleidoscope, the unseen portion is likely 80% or more of the possible whole. And every time the toy is shaken, the view changes. It will never look exactly the same again because the part we could not see shifts into view and things are rearranged. We never know when something that has left our view will reemerge either.
I don't yet have a conclusion to this analogy. There are so many directions that it could go ... I guess it's like a kaleidoscope in itself. Each of us can take the chamber of shapes and twist or shake it to see our new view of it.
I guess I will end with this: I can do a lot of things myself or let the environment change my view randomly or I can ask God to align my vision with His. May the eyes of my heart be enlightened.