I had an adventure this week, travelling on a small plane to Blenheim. There were just six of us on board, and the roar of the engine meant that it wasn’t possible to speak to one another. It was a clear afternoon. I sat back, zoned out and watched the ground disappear from under me. The Canterbury plains became a haphazard patchwork of small squares, and I could see where the braided rivers touched the sea. It reminded me of a wordless picture book called Zoom by Ishvan Banyai where the illustrator keeps ‘zooming out’, changing the perspective for the reader. The snow-covered mountains rose up and I couldn’t help thinking of a worship song- “Over the mountains and the sea, your river runs with love for me…”
At Connect Blenheim church I spent some time with the team ‘zooming out’ from the day-to-day to think about the ‘big picture’ for their children’s ministry. We used Edward De Bono’s thinking hats to think about different aspects of the ministry- facts and figures, positives, negatives, emotions, new ideas…. As we tied it all together with ‘next steps’, I thought again about the layered hills and mountains I had seen on my journey up the island. Sometimes we can only see what is right in front of us, in the foreground. But other mountain peaks beckon, awaiting us in the distance. I’m grateful for this opportunity to ‘zoom out’ and see a bigger perspective.