…BIG Picture!
As I sit her writing this morning, we are still heavy in the throws of Christmas planning, and the snow is pounding down outside. However, by the time you read this, due to my own scheduling, Christmas morning will be over, all of that careful Christmas wrapping will be shredded on the floor (and hopefully gathered up by now), and the bellies will be full. For those of you who have to plan your family get togethers earlier or later, work with me on this. Last night, I was reminded again about how myopic we can become.
The Illustration: I had to go to the airport to pick up our youngest daughter and the airport is about an 80 minute drive away. I left waay early, due to the fact that it was snowing and doing an excellent job of it. By the time, I was twenty minutes into my drive, the snow had virtually stopped, so now I was about 2 hours early for arriving at the airport. Now I had loads of time to waste wandering around WalMart…really? Anyway, we eventually make the connection, and start the return trip home. Again, we are about 20 minutes away from arriving home, and the snow starts again, to the point of not being able to see the road…it just looks like a white carpet as far as the eye can see…about 2 car lengths. Really, why do I not just get completely fed up with this and move somewhere hot? But I digress.
The Wider Application: We acknowledge that God is a great and wonderful God, but when our circumstances start to close in around us, all too often the last thing we do is pray about it. We start to “plan and scheme” as the Bible sometimes refers to our efforts, without even thinking about praying. We are so into wearing our blinders, that we forget the promises that God has made to us…like…”I will never leave you nor forsake you”, or “I haven’t brought you this far to leave you” (paraphrased of course). We may be in the middle of some very dire circumstances, and we feel like we are in the middle of a very dark cloud that is never going to let us out, or see light again, but that is because our vision is so limited. God sees the bigger picture, and we have to learn to trust His eyesight through prayer.
The Narrower Application: In our marriages, too often we see everything as in a one-to-one correlation. I’ll do this if she will do that. Why won’t she do this when I did that for her? This is the myopic, narrow view of your marriage, that we are so prone to adopt because our culture has fed us such a steady diet of instant gratification. God’s economy does not work that way and deep down we all know it. We have all seen the Pins and the bumper stickers telling us that quality takes time and does not come in a hurry. When it comes to your marriage, getting what you want, whether it is more harmony, more communication, and yes, even more sex, is not going to happen over night, just because you remembered to take out the garbage without being asked.
Keep your mind and eyes on the bigger picture. I would love to know what your reactions are to this post, positive or negative. Please leave a comment below. And Happy New Year.