II Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
It was a clear, beautiful late Monday afternoon and Shayla was fully focused on getting home. After a hard day at the office all she wanted to do was drive up her driveway and enter her little oasis...HOME. Although she knew that it wasn't going to come until much later in the evening, she just wanted to sit and relax. There was supper to cook, baths to be given, cleaning to be done and, of course, the ever-present load of laundry in the hamper that had to be dealt with. She needed the feeling of pulling up her feet and sitting a spell. On this Monday, especially, she craved it.
One problem at a time.
She yearned for the traffic light to change. Traffic was everywhere on the main street of her little town. People going to and fro. All except for her lane, that is. Nobody moved. The traffic and the traffic light. She looked up and saw that the light was green. Impatiently, with a wave of her hand and in exasperation she spoke to the vehicle in front of her, "Move already! Come on, Don't you see the light is green?!" The Suburban inched forward and Shayla was thrilled to get moving again.
The Suburban stopped, only having enough room on the other side of the light for itself. And in that moment Shayla found herself in the middle of the intersection, the light had changed. She was stuck!
"WHAT?!", she said, speaking to the Suburban. She tapped the steering wheel. "If you would have just kept moving, we would be out of every one's way."
Quickly surveying the surroundings she seen where she had "just enough" room to inch passed the Suburban, but she would have to enter into the turning lane ahead of her so as to get out of the intersection.
Suddenly, everything made a little more sense. She saw the bigger scope of things. The bigger picture. She gained a better perspective on the situation.
The Suburban could not go any further because there was a line of vehicles in front of it that where stopped! None of them able to go anywhere. Because the Suburban was wider and taller than her own vehicle, she had not seen this before now.
Suddenly she felt embarrassingly shamed and foolish.
***
Isn't it just like all humanity to sometimes see only their own lives and what is right in front of them, forgetting that there is more than meets the eye? That others have situations that they too are trying to deal with and get through?
God looks down and sees it all, yet He takes the time with each and everyone of us when we allow Him to. He doesn't mind one on one time even while His eye is ever-present on the whole globe. That's a BIG God!
In the busy-ness of our daily lives, let's not get so consumed that we fail to see others in the light of grace that Jesus sees them. Let's take a step back from the rat race, even for a second, and get a better focus on what really matters.
After all, there may be a line up of distresses in front of others who surround us that we can't see until we remove our self, for a moment, from our own problem.
This life is a temporary home, and the only thing we can take with us to our eternal home is: our friends and family.
Keep the focus on eternity.
