I spent considerable time this evening looking for my glasses. I scanned my desk where they were supposed to be. I went to my bedside table. I checked the bathroom and the kitchen. I tried retracing my steps from the time I came home from school. All the searching was to no avail. Knowing they had to be here somewhere, I figured they would show up sometime so I gave up and sat down to write. And what to my wondering eyes did appear but my glasses. They were right where they were supposed to be. On my desk – the very desk I had so carefully scanned.
How can it be that I looked right at them? They were not hidden under a book or a magazine. They were in plain sight. But I did not see them. My eyes saw them. My eyes sent the necessary bits of data to my optic nerves which carried the signal to the back of my brain and yet my brain never processed the data. I was blind to them while they were right in front of me. Need I say more regarding the spiritual blindness that cripples so many of us? God’s love, the intricate design of creation, the miracle of life, the simple complexity of the Gospel is all there all the time and yet so often we just don’t see.
I am reminded of John 1:4-5. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” Jesus came and walked, talked, healed, resurrected and yet the darkness that blinded His own people prevailed and does so to this day. We can look and not see. It must not be that way for us.
Written by Roger Bothwell on September 15, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124
St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org