Driving through the Pine Pass I never get tired of the wonder of the beauty around me. Lakes, rivers, mountains, and plains shroud your drive in a wonderful majestic display of nature.
As I pondered the scenery before me I thought back to a picture a friend showed me. It was also a landscape of trees, she pointed out to me a tiny white dot in the far corner that she had a hard time taking her eyes off. She felt that when she looked at the picture all she could focus on was the tiny white dot and she could not see the beauty in the rest of the picture. That minuscule dot had all her attention. It was odd for me because I saw all the landscape and not the white dot but she could only see the white dot. It got me to thinking about peoples focus and how we can all look at the same thing but see something different.
For instance I can drive through the Pine Pass and see majesty, each curve bringing some new beauty with it but someone else perhaps from the prairies can only see those horrible twisty corners and they can not wait for the trip to be over.
Do I do that with other things in life too? Do I let the small tiny dots that grab my attention and deter me from the much bigger picture of life that is at stake?
The wolf moon this week was phenomenal a breath taking masterpiece in the sky. It was gracing the sky on my way to work this morning, you could not help but notice it. I was having a banking crisis and almost missed the moon because my focus was on the crisis. The most beautiful sight right in front of me when I was driving and I was oblivious for much of the drive. It was the same moon that brought me back to focus. I thought to myself if God could make such amazing things like that moon, then surely He can help me with my bank crisis. An hour later the crisis was over and the moon was setting in the sky.
Life has new distractions everyday to upset and vie for our attention.
My son had a hip replacement over Christmas. He is young and we have known for years that he would eventually need a new hip. The time came for it to be replaced because it totally wore out and then he had to wait 1.5 years to get into surgery. That is a long time. The wait became the white dot, the only thing we could focus on – Why was it taking so long? Looking back now, I can see that we missed some of the big picture during our wait because our focus was solely on the operation.
Our house is for sale. It has been for sale since October and believe me it is the white dot. When is it going to sell? Is today the day it will sell? Has God forgotten to send the buyers? I have to admit, I focus on the sale of the house a lot and miss the rest of life because I am so preoccupied with the house. I am better now at leaving the house totally in God’s plan and resuming living again, but it has been a journey.
That is until the next person says, “what is the plan after your house sells?” Then I am off and staring at the white dot again, because I have no plan. Instead of looking at all the wonderful opportunities that come with the sale, I think, “Oh my stars, where are we going to move to....?”
This might make you smile as you read it because you can probably hear me say, “Oh my stars….” But I wonder if today, you too are looking at the tiny white dot, instead of the incredible landscape all around you.
Instead of ugh, going to work, it is the opportunity of getting to go to a job.
Instead of ugh, there is no school today and I have my kids home or I have to watch my grandkids today, it is the opportunity of molding the next generation.
What is your dot in the big landscape of your life today?
The tiny dot or the bigger landscape – all you have to do is move your eyes.