"The Dress"

Out of nowhere, yesterday a dress was all over my Facebook feed.  Why?  Because it appeared black and blue to some and gold and white to other people (I'm strange I guess, because it looked light blue and gold to me...).

The science behind why some see different colors in this instance is pretty well understood, but the idea of people seeing the same thing in different ways was absolutely fascinating to many people.  My wife, being a scrapbooker and having an eye for color, found the dress interesting because how people see colors is important to how she does layouts and how she takes pictures of them.  To others, it was fascinating because they wanted to know the "why" behind it.

To me, it wasn't all that interesting.  Except...I just can't help reading things like this through a theological lens.

Some see blue and some see white.  Does that mean that both are right?  Nope.  The dress is objectively a certain color.  It isn't "whatever you see."

Our eyes can deceive us.  Our senses can lie to us.  Our understanding of things can be wrong.
Does that mean there is no objective truth?  Nope.  It just means that we can't ultimately rely on our senses to determine what is true.

So where do we go for ultimate truth?


  • Feelings? Our feelings can lie to us and my feelings might be different than yours.  So we can't rely on feelings.
  • Reason?  Our minds get tricked by what color a dress appears to be; how much confidence can we place in our own reason?
  • Science?  Science is great at studying a lot of things, but it really cannot reveal anything about morality, God, or ultimate truths.


So where do we turn?  We turn to the Word of God.

God's Word is trustworthy.  It doesn't lie.  It speaks truth.

But what if there is a difference in understanding between two individuals about what the Word of God says?  Well that can happen, but at least if you start of with God's Word as the basis for ultimate truth, you have a starting point for a real and constructive discussion.

Whether you are interested in the dress, fascinated by it, confounded by it, or have no interest in it, let it serve as a reminder that our senses can deceive us, but the Word of God is always reliable.

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,"  (2 Timothy 3:16)

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