I’m usually a very organized, perceptive person. I can see the big picture and also details. But there was one very trivial event in my past that comes to mind every now and then to remind me that we all have blind spots. Things we just don’t see until something comes along that opens our eyes, and then we find it hard to believe that we didn’t see it before.
Ten years ago God moved us from Southern California to Phoenix. When we got there we found a great house and bought it. Selling a house in California and moving to Phoenix is easy. The reverse… not so much. Our house in the desert was even on a golf course since I needed to see green grass and trees. I’m not a desert person.
A year after we moved into that new house I discovered that there was a drawer in the kitchen that I had never seen before. A whole year!! I don’t know what led me to pull it open, but when I did, there was a big drawer with nothing in it. And for most of us, finding extra space in our kitchens is priceless. I still can’t figure out how I went a whole year without noticing that drawer was there just waiting to be used.
It’s been ten years since I found that empty drawer. And even now, whenever I find myself thinking that I have something all figured out – that I’ve got all the answers – I remember that drawer. Even though it was a silly insignificant thing, it reminds me that we all have blind spots – things that are totally off our radar until all the sudden we see them, and we wonder how in the world we didn’t see them before. And it happens with more important things than just an extra kitchen drawer.
And the scary thing about blind spots is that, by definition, we don’t know what they are! We can’t see them. We don’t even know they’re there.
Thinking about that kitchen drawer reminds me that I need to always be open to growing and learning. And that I need to constantly be asking God to help me see what’s true and what’s not. What’s really important and what’s not. Because blind spots happen to all of us.
by Bernice Gudgel