Noticing The Important Things
By Jerry Ousley
Our house has an upstairs. At one time it was our son's bedroom
but after he left home to create a life for himself in
Cleveland, Ohio it became my office. In the summer, even with
central air it gets hot up there so we purchased a good window
air conditioner years ago. Each summer I put it in the window
and each winter I take it out. About four years ago when I took
it out I noticed that the storm window wasn't there anymore and
so I just shut the main window and left it be. Over the years
the rain, snow, sleet and other forces of nature began taking a
toll on the window frame and now a good part of it needs to be
replaced.
We're getting ready to have our son-in-law come in and give us
an estimate on replacing the frame and while Deb and I were
talking about it the thought occurred to me that four years ago
I must have taken the storm window out so it had to be somewhere
in the house. I set out on a mission to find it. I looked behind
all the shelves, beds, and chests but there was no sign of it.
Then it dawned on me that at one time I had put some parts to a
window in the closet built around the eves of the house. This
closet is only about three feet high so I cleaned a path and
crawled through it looking for a storm window that would fit
into the small upstairs storm window frame. I did find a screen
and not wanting to come out of that painful crawl space
empty-handed (remember I'm overweight and fifty-three years old)
I brought the screen out with me. I didn't have the slightest
idea of how that would keep the elements out in the winter but I
brought it out anyway just in case so I wouldn't have to crawl
back in there to get it.
I got out of the closet, replaced the items I had taken out so
I'd fit in there, and went over to the window. Yep, the screen
definitely went to that frame. But where in the world was the
storm window? As I took a closer look I heard the "stupid bell"
go off in my head (that's the bell that sounds when you suddenly
realize you've done something stupid). My eyes fell on the
release levers of the storm window and when I pushed them in the
storm window slid down into place. It had been there all along
but because I hadn't noticed it we now needed to replace our
window frame . . . duh!
This experience reminded me of the story in Genesis 21 about
Hagar and Ishmael. Although they hadn't done anything nearly as
stupid as I had done, still they found themselves in a situation
where they hadn't noticed a very important part of nature. You
can read the whole story for yourself but in a nut shell the
pair had been booted out of the household of Abraham due to a
particularly strained relationship. Abraham had sent them away
with a container of water so apparently they had been in the
wilderness for a number of days. The water had run out and they
found themselves so distraught by the beating down sun that
Ishmael was already near death and Hagar, his mother, was
desperate. She didn't want her son to die. She did the only
thing she could do in that situation and cried out to the God
she had heard Abraham talk about so often. The Bible says that
God heard them and opened Hagar's eyes. That's when she saw a
well of water and they were saved. The point I'd like to make is
that the well of water had been there all along. They just
hadn't noticed it. After prayer God allowed them to see the
obvious.
It's the same in many life situations today. You've heard the
old saying, "You can't see the forest for the trees." Often we
find ourselves in these very situations when the answer is
obvious but we are so upset, torn up and frantic that we can
only see the need and our own desperate situation and can't see
the obvious. When we turn to God with our whole lives and cry
out to Him then he will open our eyes to the answer that is
already there. He will help us to notice the important things.
Jerry D. Ousley is the Author of three books, "Soul Challenge",
"Soul Journey" and "Ordeal." Listen to our daily broadcast
Spirit Bread. Find out more by visiting www.spiritbread.com
or email us at jousley@spiritbread.com
