"We know in part ,and we prophecy in part......

The turn of a new year is always a time to give value to the past and dream for the future. The problem with pronouncing judgement on the past is that we do it prematurely with partial knowledge. 1 Corinthians 13:9 says,"For we know in part and we prophecy in part....".a little further on it reads,"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully even as I am fully known." How can we give objective meaning to our past when we only have a partial or distorted view?

Here is a story that comes out of India that can assist us in this quest. I wrote this story in my own words after hearing it in various forms.The story goes thus..........

Six blind men are brought before the king in order to describe an object. It is not revealed to them what it was that they were to describe.They were simply instructed to describe the object based om what they could touch or feel. An elephant was brought in and the first of the six blind men placed his hands on the tusk and said with surety,"This is positively a pipe of some kind for it is long and tubular!"

The second blind man was then ushered in and took hold of the tail and said emphatically,"This is not a pipe! This is a rope you fool.....anyone can see that!"

After him came came the third man,"You're both wrong!" taking a hold of the elephant's leg he said," It's a pillar of some kind."

With his conclusion comes the fourth man forward saying," What are you all talking about?" He was walking underneath the beast and felt the enormous underside of the elephant," What we have here is a wall of incredible proportion. How could you all be so blind?"

The fifth blind man approached and took hold of an ear and proclaimed with confidence," This is some kind of enormous fan .....perhaps the largest I've ever seen!"

Lastly came in the sixth man who boldly placed his hand upon the trunk and said,"You are all in error. This is a tree branch of an unknown species for it's bark is soft."

Finally the king spoke up and said," You all have described the object before you in half truths with limited perspective. You are all partially right. But a half truth is an untruth when later viewed as the whole!"

A servant standing and observing to the side announced," Only the King has the full picture for he views it as the whole and from it's beginning to it's end."

The application of the story to the new year and assigning a value to our past is apparent.It is important to give meaning and value to what's transpired for Thoreau once wrote ," The unexamined life is not worth living" But be careful the value you place on it. For who knows the whole but the king?

Asaph the psalmist was tring to put a value on all that he had gone through the previous years and in his attempt to give meaning to his life and all that had transpired he said,"When I tried to understand all this it was oppressive to me....till I enterd the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their final destiny."Psalm 73. In other words with God removed from the values search or search for meaning it will be all in vain for only he knows the beginning from the end . Without Gods perspective we are as blind as the men in the parable and draw false conclusions about our life ,the future and our past making premature judgements about things we only see in part