Things Ignored: Things Acknowledged

Sandy Dickson

     They were bathed in the moonlight as they walked under the numerous stars on the warm summer night while the ocean gently lapped at their feet. They had come to the ocean during the day and after the sun set, they lit a bonfire in the sand, which was still warm from the sun’s rays.

     The next morning from home, she took her dog for a walk, passing the numerous flowers in the garden in various shapes of glorious color. A butterfly flitted over a red flower as a  bumble bee hovered above another.

     By now it had rained, and as he headed to work, there appeared a beautiful rainbow just  between him and the purple mountain range that lay stretched ahead in the distance.

     Around him, others bustled, probably on a similar daily mission: en route to work. People revolved, life went on.

     Across town, a woman who had been blind since birth, was waiting to have the bandages removed from a potentially life-changing, new operation that was hoped to give her sight. No one knew for sure it would work, but as her family gathered around her, they prayed that God would allow this procedure to be a success by working through the surgeon’s hands to give this blind woman sight for the first time.

     The bandages were removed in the afternoon and all in the room anxiously awaited the verdict.

     She squinted at the removal. This was a good sign because it showed she was reacting to light after having lived an entire life in total darkness.

     Now she saw very blurry forms, but this was expected as her newly sighted eyes adjusted. As the hours progressed, things began to come into focus and she was delighted. As each loved on spoke to her, she was able to match a face to each familiar voice. This was an exciting day for all of them, but for especially her, who had never seen anything in her entire life of 22 years, in her isolated world of darkness. She had only been able to form images in her imagination. Now, out the window from her hospital bed, was her first view of sky and first knowledge of the color blue.

     The closing of day in the western direction was a glorious sky smeared with the shades of pinks, lavenders and oranges from the setting sun. Her loved ones explained the spectacle and colors. She was in awe.

     That evening outside, she saw tiny lights glistening against the black sky. Now she knew what stars were.

     By the next morning she had been taken home, and the first thing she wanted to do when she awakened was go outside. Here, she experienced the sight of the world outside her head for the first time. It was bursting with color and life. In the flower garden, she saw magnificent flowers of many varieties and colors; all different. How strange to have only heard names of colors and not know or be able to imagine what they really were. Now they were reality.

     Her mother explained God’s miraculous love in all the variety He gave us. He didn’t just make one kind of flower, though He could have, and we’d never have known the difference. She leapt with joy at the bumblebees and butterflies, and marveled at them. A tiny hummingbird came to the nearby hummingbird feeder, and she was amazed. Now she also saw other birds in flight and could see what had been responsible for the songs she had only heard before.

     That night, she watched another sunset and when the moon came up, she was also in awe at such an incredible feat that the moon and stars had been hung there, suspended by an invisible power that only God, the Creator, could accomplish.

     Now when the breeze came up, she could actually see what made the rustling noise of the trees as their leaves stirred and touched.

     Her mother had explained that these things all had a purpose and were given to us by our loving God. She knew she had much to discover. She still had to go to the ocean to see the waves, see the purple mountains in the distance, see a rainbow and witness the marvels of each season.

     “I will never get tired of this,” she announced. “I want to drink in this beauty for the rest of my life, not forgetting how marvelous it is and the wondrous God Who gave it to us.”

      The same things existed to the first couple, but they didn't seem to see. There was no sense of wonder, no awe because these things had become so commonplace.

     We get so complacent in the wonder around us, it even seems to cry out to us that it is there to enjoy, but we don’t even notice it anymore, to think about it, appreciate it or give God the glory. Whenever we got discouraged or have a bad day, we need to think more about the best things God gave us to savor that are all around us and know that no matter what, they are there, for our benefit and enjoyment and that nothing can take them away. Maybe some things can temporarily vanish: bombs and fire as well as natural disasters like storms and floods can take flowers and change landscape, but most will return, and even if it doesn't, there are plenty of other things to enjoy that remain. Bumblebees, butterflies and birds will come back, and God made the moon, sun and stars so high, they are out of man’s reach to destroy, but then, so is His love, always there, where no man can take it away and it will always remain.