On Sunday mornings I have to ride the bus from our community to get to church as I have no one to get the wheelchair or scooter out of the car. This past Sunday it had snowed about an inch as we were leaving, and we drove past the wooded area. Since the leaves are down the snow highlighted the many fallen trees in the woods. Normally we don't notice them, even with the leaves down, but the snow brought them to our attention, and they were the topic of conversation for a few minutes. I have been attending worship using a wheelchair to get around but Sunday I arrived using my new mobility scooter. No one said a word. I even mentioned it to someone, and they stepped back and looked carefully before offering their congratulations. All through the morning no one said anything. I'm still wondering if they didn't say anything because they don't want to draw attention to the machine, or if they are truly paying so much attention to the person in the machine that it becomes superfluous. I choose to believe the latter.
We don't always notice things that are right in front of us. Jesus asked a crowd once to consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. He either assumed that they were items people usually noticed, or they were in the field in which the people were sitting. I wonder how many people, when he called these items to their attention were surprised to see them all around. Some people can walk through downtown areas and not see the persons all around them who have no shelter. My challenge to us in the next few days is to be more alert to what is around us, the positive, the negative, so that we might enjoy the positive and begin to find ways to alleviate the negative.
Creator God, you have filled the world with amazing things, and yet we are so often wrapped up in our own issues and activities that we might miss what is right in front of us. We also have a tendency to not see the people around us, or to not notice the challenges making their lives more difficult. If we don't see them we cannot work to alleviate them, so open our eyes that we might see what is before us. Open our hearts to respond, and grant us the courage we may need to do so......Amen
We don't always notice things that are right in front of us. Jesus asked a crowd once to consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. He either assumed that they were items people usually noticed, or they were in the field in which the people were sitting. I wonder how many people, when he called these items to their attention were surprised to see them all around. Some people can walk through downtown areas and not see the persons all around them who have no shelter. My challenge to us in the next few days is to be more alert to what is around us, the positive, the negative, so that we might enjoy the positive and begin to find ways to alleviate the negative.
Creator God, you have filled the world with amazing things, and yet we are so often wrapped up in our own issues and activities that we might miss what is right in front of us. We also have a tendency to not see the people around us, or to not notice the challenges making their lives more difficult. If we don't see them we cannot work to alleviate them, so open our eyes that we might see what is before us. Open our hearts to respond, and grant us the courage we may need to do so......Amen
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