I Can't See the Forest for the Trees

1 Corinthians 13:12a Now we see in a mirror, dimly (NKJV)

In early 2005, I was a lady of leisure for the first time of my life.  We lived in a new city.  We redefined our family with my new position - stay at home mom.  My youngest, Hayleigh, was in Kindergarten.  I enjoyed the greatest amount of free time life had given me since childhood.

It was at this freest point, that Scott and I chose to have our third baby.  My life was instantly hurtled from easy street to the intersection of overscheduled and outnumbered.  Instead of allowing myself to fully enjoy this new adventure, I mourned the freedom I thought I lost.

Today’s passage is Mark 8.  Mark continues to chronicle Jesus travels.  The journey leads to Bethsaida.  Here Jesus encounters a blind man but this healing is unique from any other recorded miracle - his sight is restored not instantaneously but in stages.

After the first round of treatment, Jesus inquires what the man can see.  As he tries to process the images he knows he is seeing people walking around but they look more like trees than humans.  A second round of care completes the process and his sight is fully restored.

My spiritual and emotional sight can be impaired by situational blindness.  I find myself immersed in my circumstances and fail to process my situation with the power of perspective.

Surrounding this incident, Mark records two additional events that inspire my use of a healthy dose of perspective:

1.  A Second Feeding - The disciples are charged by Jesus with feeding 4,000 hungry followers.  They have zero clue how to carry out this duty.  This wouldn’t seem strange except they already witnessed Jesus miraculously feed 5,000 people.

How quickly I too forget what God has done in my life.  How He has shown up.  How He has proven Himself faithful.  In the midst of my mess, I need to remember this isn’t my first feeding.

2.  A Bothersome Question - In the midst of this second incredible feeding, the Pharisees come to question Jesus.  He sighs.

I tire of the questions in my life.  They make me sigh if they focus my attention.  Jesus didn't stop His thoughts at His sigh.  He lasered on the truth of God's Word and responded with that truth.  In the middle of my trouble, I need to recall God's truth.

In a few months that third baby will go to Kindergarten.  I can not imagine life without her.  She and her little sister have completed the love and joy in our family.  I celebrate every busy, overscheduled moment her arrival brought with her.

Jesus, in 2005 I couldn't see the forest of the blessing for the tree of my immediate discomfort.  Like the blind man, You have restored my sight in stages.  I now see the full favor You gave our family in the package of our third child.  As I encounter new difficulties may I remember the power of perspective.  My new challenge will not be my first feeding.  The potential worries that come with that challenge disappear when I filter them through Your word.