Lost Butter

Tonight is a youth swim party. I wanted to make chocolate chip cookie bars to take as a sweet treat. Caleb and I ran to the grocery store this morning for just a few things- but I knew I didn't need anything for the cookie bars. I already had it all.

When he and I got back home, I decided it would be a good idea to let the butter soften on the counter for a little while. I open the fridge and start scrounging around. And it is no where to be found. And I am very confused. I know I have butter. Real butter. At least 2 sticks of it. Somewhere. In the fridge. I look and look and Caleb starts crying about something. So I stop looking. Then I get distracted and sooner or later it's time to lay him down for a nap. I get him settled and then come back to the refrigerator. I take a deep breath. Tell myself not to get frustrated. I will find it. I open the door and wha-la- it's right in front of my face.

Has that ever happened to you? You start looking for something and you totally miss it? If Ross had been home, I would have asked him to help me and he would have thought I was crazy, or blind, or maybe, just human.

We can't see things right in front of our faces a lot of times, huh? Perhaps they are real things, like butter- because we have a preconceived idea of where it should be. Other times it's emotions. Someone right in front of us is hurting and we totally miss it, because we are so absorbed with our own hurts and pains. Other times it's our own sin- blatant, right in front of my face, but I can't see it. Maybe I really am blind to it- because of my pride. Or maybe I have a faulty understanding of truth and I don't know it's sin.

Regardless, we need to pray that God opens our eyes to things around us and inside us. We also need to ask friends to help us see things right in front of our own faces.

John 9:35-41

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

Spiritual Blindness

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

³⁶ “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

³⁷ Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

³⁸ Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

³⁹ Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

⁴⁰ Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

⁴¹ Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.