You may have seen the picture that took the internet by storm a few weeks ago:
There is this dress, one dress, people cannot agree on. What color is it?? White and gold? Blue and black? For a brief moment in the cyberworld, everyone had an opinion and no one could agree. Two people sitting next to each other could look at the same picture and see different colors. How could that be? How could people looking at the same thing have two opposing opinions?
I wanted to know, too. And I found this really smart answer:
"Our eyes are able to assign fixed colors to objects under widely different lighting condition. This ability is called color constancy. But the photograph doesn't give many clues about the the ambient light in the room. Is the background bright and the dress in shadow? Or is the whole room bright and all the colors are washed out? Different people may pick up on different visual cues in the image, which can change how (their minds) interpret and name the colors."
So, we can all be looking at the same thing, but as we interpret the surroundings, it can change the way we see it. That's how so many of us had so many different opinions. Fascinating! But, our interpretation doesn't change the actual color of the dress. (For inquiring minds, the dress was actually blue and black) Our opinions can't change truth.
I want to switch gears for a moment and talk about God. We live in a world with as many opinions as people: He exists. He doesn't exist. There is no God. His is force and power. He is in everything. He is no where. He is angry and vengeful. He is kind and loving.
But, just as our differing interpretations and opinions of the color of the dress had no effect on the actual dress, our opinions cannot change reality-- the truth.
God lives. That's not an opinion. That is truth. THE truth. God does not change. He "is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness, nether shadow of changing" (Mormon 9:9).
We can fight over principles and principalities, but our opinions will never change the truth.
God is real. He is a loving Heavenly Father with a plan and a purpose for us.
He is the author of what is right and what is wrong. We can have our opinions of what should be acceptable, what we want to be able to choose and do without negative consequences, but our opinions don't change truth.
Just as we can't change the nature of a tree because we decide it's just a large bush, we can't change the nature to God because we decide our image of Him is right.
There are millions of opinons, but only one truth: God's. How much happier would we be if we put as much energy into finding His truth in all things as we do in trying to prove our opinons are right?
Opinions cannot and will not change truth. But truth can change opinions, and can change us.
