This weekend, I was cutting up an apple, and immediately thought of Lilli. She will tell you, at any provocation, that apples are her FAVORITE, that she LOVES them, and that they’re yummy for her tummy. When I cut the apple in half, and saw the tiny little seeds against the white flesh, I literally laughed out loud.

During this recent visit, Emmie was holding Brody, and Lilli walked up to them to ask a question (It was likely to ask if she could have a snack, because that’s her favorite question to ask). She was right in front of them, and looking straight up from her three-year-old vantage point, her view was her brother’s little nose and his two tiny nostrils. They distracted her from her question, causing her to offer this observation:

Mommy! Brody’s nose holes look like seeds! Like in my apple!

And they really did! From her perspective, they were dark little seeds on white flesh. We loved it!

Sometimes (a lot of the time, actually) I think we operate this way. We observe something in our lives that looks like a thing, but instead of realizing that it’s really something else, we move forward based on our wrong perspective. For instance, we may have an old wound in our hearts, one we think we’ve long-moved past, but we are having trouble, now, in a completely different area of our lives. We concentrate on trying to address this new trouble. Maybe we even seek council for it, and we do all the right things to meet that particular problem head-on, but things are still not right. Why isn’t it working? Why isn’t it healing?

Maybe because the real problem isn’t what we’re working on at all.

Let’s grab an apple, and consider our perspective. Who knows? We may be working on seeds, when it’s really a couple of tiny nostrils. We owe it to ourselves to find out.

Or we could just ask Lilli. She seems to know the difference.

“I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!” Ephesians 1:17 MSG

“Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” John 7:24 NLT

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5 ESV

“An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” Proverbs 18:15 ESV