I have seen many paintings of Lugano, Switzerland and they all capture a certain quality of the idyllic community sandwiched in the lake district on the Swiss/Italian border but none captures it like being there. The memories of a boat on the lake trailing a bottle of wine by rope in the cold water to be enjoyed later with fresh bread and cheese from the market. The sight of people milling about in the market and the sun as it reflects from the multicolored faces of the Mediterranean buildings that line the shore and climb the green sides of the surrounding mountains…no picture can capture that.

It is the same as a photograph. No matter how many pictures of my children I look at they give me only one perspective. It is unreal somehow. Incomplete and ultimately, if I rely solely on them to inform me, unreliable…like a lie.

I believe this is another reason for community and the importance of it to our triune God. Many people relating together allow for a varied and more realistic perspective of a person (of one-another). Or to put it another way…to rely on one person’s perspective of someone or something creates a one-dimensional view of life. Rather it is through the eyes of many that we can come to a more complete picture and ultimately it is through our own eyes that we gain the greatest perspective.

Can we judge the complexity of a Grand Cru Margeaux or depth of flavor in a fine filet mignon through the opinion of others? Are we not robbing ourselves of something incredible by not taking the time to savor it ourselves? So too we rob ourselves of the rich experience of relationship if we choose to rely on the experience of others to be our sole guide.