The Influence of Truth

The grumpy old man walked his bulldog down Cherry Lane each morning.

What scenic picture does this conjure in your mind?  Perhaps you see an older neighborhood in a quiet suburb with mature trees.  On a shady driveway, a friendly little white haired lady in fuzzy slippers hums to herself as she slowly bends to retrieve her morning paper.  The poodles across the street bark excitedly, leaping inside the picket fence as their bulldog buddy walks steadily along the uneven sidewalk.

The little boy walked his puppy down Cherry Lane each morning.

Does this Cherry Lane present a different mental image?  It does for me.  I see a dirt path carved through the edge of a pasture by countless years of horses pulling buggies, trudging farm equipment, and barefoot boys walking home from school.  A cow scratches himself against the leaning fencepost held up with rusted but hardy strings of barbed wire.  There is a lone cherry tree among the bunch grass up on the hill to the southwest, providing the road with its name.

The fireman walked his Dalmatian down Cherry Lane each morning.

And how about this one; is it different yet?  My imagination tells me quite firmly that this street is located in a bustling active part of the city.  Whenever the alarm emits its urgent signal, the fire trucks pull out of the station onto Cherry Lane, leaving shiny black marks on the pavement where the tires, bearing the weight of tons of water, rapidly turn toward their destination.

Maybe it’s just me, but I wonder…  Why does the written description of Cherry Lane remain unchanged in each sentence, yet by introducing variations of people and their canine companions, the entire location, setting and scenery are so drastically altered? 

If someone actually took me to the real Cherry Lane and I saw for myself what it looked like, the visual description would be solidly established in my memory.  It would no longer make any difference what variations of people or animals walked there, and no one would be able to convince me otherwise.  All speculation would fall away in light of the truth.

~ae

“…So a second time they called the man who had been blind,

and said to him,

‘Give glory to God;

we know that this man (Jesus) is a sinner.’

He then answered,

‘Whether He is a sinner, I do not know;

one thing I do know,

that though I was blind,

now I see’...”

~John 9:24,25


"Many more believed because of His word; 
and they were saying to the woman, 
'It is no longer 
because of what you said that we believe, 
for we have heard for ourselves 
and know 
that this One is indeed 
the Savior of the world.'"  
~John 4:41,42