A couple of weeks ago I flew out to Colorado to speak for a youth rally in Grand Junction, which was the first church I pastored after college nearly 20 years ago. It was great to go back and see my friends there after all these years. It was especially a joy, because I was able to take my 8-year-old daughter with me. It was fun to have a "daddy-daughter" weekend.
We flew into Denver, where we rented a car. Then we started the four-hour drive over the mountains to the western part of the state. This is my favorite drive in all of North America - four hours of driving among the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Every time the freeway turns a corner, there's another mountain coming into view. Each one is absolutely breathtaking. So I spent the whole trip in awe, as I always do when I make that drive.
And of course, I assume my daughter is enjoying it as much as I am. So as we're approaching the Eisenhower Tunnel up at 11,000 feet, I turn to look at Kaleigh in the back seat, to get her reaction to the beautiful scenery. What I see there is my daughter with her head under her blanket, so that she can better see the DVD player which is in her lap. She was missing it all! So I called to her (she had earphones on), and told her she needed to look at the mountains we were driving through. She lowered the blanket, looked out the window, and said, "That's nice." Then she quickly put the blanket back over her head and continued to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
I couldn't believe it! How can she prefer to look at the DVD (which she's seen before), rather than enjoy the beauty of the Colorado Rockies? I'm afraid I just don't get it.
I wonder how often God has the same reaction to the way I live my life. What are the things that God wants to show me, that I'm too busy to look at? How many times does He want to give me a glimpse of His majesty, His awesomeness, His grace and mercy, but I'm back here putting a blanket over my head. There's a million things that catch my attention...maybe it's something on TV, maybe it's surfing the internet, maybe it's just the busyness of life - whatever it is, it catches my attention and keeps me enthralled. So when God says, "Hey, look at this," I look for a moment, then go back to whatever I was looking at before. How much of God's wonder have I missed because I just didn't want to look when He was trying to catch my attention?
My prayer today is that I will let God take the blanket off my head, so I can be amazed by the things He loves. I want to live in awe of His beauty, His majesty, and His love.
I know how it is that your daughter preferred to look at the DVD - she had one to look at! We didn't when we were her age and so have a far greater appreciation for the scenery.
ReplyDeleteThe blanket on our heads is pretty much our choice, where we choose to focus - or at least try to focus - our attention.
We see what we look for.
Reminds me of when Austin and I went out to Arizona last March for a "father-son" week at baseball spring training, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon. After driving a couple of hours from Flagstaff and arriving at the Grand Canyon we walked to precipice and looked out over the majesty of the place. He did think it was beautiful and said "Wow, that's awesome!" But after maybe 10 minutes of walking along the rim and snapping another photo he said, "This is really cool and everything but can we go back to the hotel and go bowling, now?".
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