Food for Thought: Seeing Clearly
by Ardith Hoff
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal they lay down for the night, and went to sleep.
Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."
Watson replied, “I see millions and millions of stars."
What does that tell you?"
Watson pondered for a minute.
"Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Meteorologically, I see that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all-powerful and that we are small and insignificant. What does it tell you?"
Holmes was silent for a moment then said, "Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!"
Like Watson, we sometimes get caught up with the vastness of the universe of problems, and we don’t think we can do anything about them. What we might be missing is that our next-door neighbor needs a helping hand, or that our own child needs our attention.
“Some people may not yet have discovered God’s plan for them because they are looking for the wrong thing. They may be expecting God to show them a worldwide map, while He might just be showing them the next turn in the road. If they have their minds set on seeing the whole picture, they are likely to overlook the next small detail of direction that God is trying to give them. God leads us one step at a time. The Psalmist said, ‘The steps of a man are established by the Lord.’ It is no accident that he used the word “step”. While God has the whole journey mapped out ahead of time, He conceives of that journey as a successive series of small steps, and that is the way He makes it known to us.” Adapted from a speech by Richard L. Strauss