A God’s-Eye View

I have seen bike racks on top of cars.
I have seen people carrying kayaks as well.
I have seen cargo carriers on the top of cars, particularly in the summer months.
However, I finally saw something I had never seen before.

From my vantage point, I could not discern what it was that I saw on top of the little car.
I could see that the car was white and it had writing on the sides.
As I got closer, I saw the familiar logo that I see everyday on my computer and phone.
I would know that logo anywhere.

The little car had something on its roof that was quite tall.
It almost looked like a ball on top of a large poll.
It was not until I got closer that I could see it was a camera.
The words on the side of the car said, Google Maps Street View.

We each were going in the same direction.
I ended up driving behind the little white car.
I watched as the driver drove close to all the curbs.
I watched as the tall camera hit some low tree branches and the leaves came tumbling down.

I watched as the driver drove towards the entrance of a medical complex.
He never turned in that entrance or the second entrance a bit farther down.
When he approached an actual street, he turned down.
He was driving slower than the speed limit.

After he turned down the street, I laughed to myself.
How does it feel to be filmed the entire time you are driving? I asked out loud.
I saw people do a double take as they passed the Google car on the other side of the road.
It was a bit strange to think that I was witnessing the Google Maps Street View car in action.

According to one Google driver, he was given instructions to drive around his neighborhood, local streets, and city. So, rather than having one driver travel the entire US, Google focuses on small regions at a time. This is because Google understands that local citizens know the ins and the outs of their locale better than anyone else. Drivers are told to drive on every street the car can drive through – from highways, to alleys. Once they get inside the car, you get the system rolling with a simple “pause/record” button which controls the camera.

You have a screen on the passenger side of the vehicle, and in the rear of the vehicle you have the large server which takes care of the rest.

According to Google, Street View imagery is gathered by vehicles equipped with advanced imaging technology – which is just a fancy way of saying a large pole with 8 cameras pointing in different directions that simultaneously take pictures. As the vehicle drives on public streets, it records and monitors all of the events around the car. Once processed, the system blurs out faces and letters (license plates and signs). The images are then uploaded to the main servers where they get processed using images from Google’s own data, and data obtained from different partners. It’s not in real-time, but Google claims that most of the images were taken within the last year. (tek-bull.com)

We have technology right at our fingertips.
We never think about the actual people that make the technology possible.
I never really thought that there was a Google Maps Street View driver.
It was like the story about the little man in the refrigerator who turns the light on and off.

Street view maps do not just happen by themselves.
I just never entertained the thought of how the street maps came to be.
Someone has to actually drive up and down every possible street.
The superfluous images are removed; only the pertinent street views remain.

I lift up my eyes to the hills–where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip–he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  The LORD watches over you–the LORD is your shade at your right hand;the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm–he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. (Psalm 121)

The Lord watches over our comings and goings.
The Lord knows every street, every hill, and every valley.
There is no place on this earth where we can run to get away from His presence.
There is no place on earth where we can hide from the Lord.

The Lord does not need a special camera to see all that He has made.
The Lord is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
The Lord is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present.
No camera on top of a little white car could ever capture a God’s-eye view of things.

God allows technology to advance.
God equips men and women to study and design new things to assist us.
However, the most intelligent brains could never come close to Divine knowledge.
There are some things that we will never know no matter how advanced we become.

It was so much fun to watch the Google Maps Street View car drive in front of me.
The eight cameras pointing in all directions will still not capture a God’s-eye view.
It’s not supposed to.
We are not God.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)