What does this term mean, pray tell? "The entire perspective on a situation or issue," is how Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the term. In other words if we can personally relate the term to various and different situations in our lives, then it means that whenever something happens or situations occur we may try to deduce its meaning just based on what we can see. But we have to take into consideration the holistic approach which again is "the importance of the whole rather than all its parts." Now this is usually not the easiest thing to do when we find ourselves in situations, especially when we are going through them and they are not exactly that enjoyable.
How can we see a big picture when it seems like everything is going in another direction than expected or even worst, when all hell just seems to break lose one event after another. Consider Joseph in the bible when his brothers sold him out to become a slave, just because he had the gift of dreaming and interpreting them. The huge mistake he made was to share his dream with his brothers who committed this atrocious act against him. Then to top it off lied to their father about it that his favorite son had died. Now Joseph's sojourn was bittersweet. He found himself a stranger in foreign land as a teenager, no family support but the only thing he had going for him was the favor of God on his life. But even with God favoring him, he still had to face seduction, lies, even prison which led to more disappointment and rejection. It just seems like a progression for him from bad to worst. However as the saying goes, "trouble don't last always." He was able to go through those experiences, not exactly clicking his heels but still hopeful for any lifeline that would come his way. One of those lifeline did turn his back on him after he helped him to gain his freedom. Joseph was unaware of his big picture until it was revealed to him when the gift that God gave him (the same one that landed him in the pit of his life) made way for him to see the big picture.
The very gift that became the creation of his life of hell in Egypt at the hands of his brothers because he was able to dream his big picture and actually believed it, in the end open up his eyes to the "entire perspective" of his own situation. As the story goes in Genesis when he interpreted the dream of the famine for Pharaoh, Pharaoh then made him second in command in Egypt. Those very brothers although they tried to stop the fulfillment of a dream he shared with them, still couldn't change his big picture by their jealous actions. All that the brothers did to Joseph was a part of the big picture God had painted for Joseph; this he shared with them at their reunion when he said what they meant for evil, God had meant for his good.
So how can we fall in line and allow the big picture of our lives to become our focus, and less of the small stuff. Here's a clue that I was divinely enlightened with: there is a connection with the gift and the big picture. When the gift begins to become a problem for haters or when situations begin to spin out of our control, then the same gift will become the catalyst to create or pave the way for the big picture to be revealed. So if we don't know the big picture, follow the trial and the trace the trail, watch the pattern, the brewing of the drama that is leading up to the hell. It is all orchestrated to lead to the big picture.
There is a big picture for all of us whether we believe it or not. So don't sweat the small stuff. Our purpose is the big picture, sometimes it is the picture within a picture, our destiny/calling. That is the ultimate picture. After all we are all created for purpose. However this is not an end all be all. Purpose is a constantly revolving process that changes us from one level to the next until we hit that plateau but never our zenith. If we hit the zenith of purpose then there is nothing else left for us to do and life will become meaningless. May as well 'we lay our burdens down by the river side and study war no more." In other words get ready to stop living. So we should live with a sense of awareness, that the situations in life doesn't always come the way we want them. They manifest themselves in all manners of ways but one thing is certain and that is as long as we are alive we have use. Our experiences will point us in the direction that we ought to take because the big picture is already painted by the Almighty. So we walk in the way as a willing participant. It is not too late to get it together because the big picture awaits.
Sisterly
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