I went out to take on the profound task of hanging out the laundry. As I was about to hang the first black t-shirt, the sun in my eyes was dazzling, and I was about to turn my back to it, when I made a mind-blowing discovery - that little black t-shirt could actually block out the sun! How is that possible, when the sun is an incredibly large mass of burning gases, 109 times bigger than the earth? Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that it's all about proximity - the closer I stood to that T shirt, the more my vision of the sun was obstructed!
By now, my childrens pastor's brain was ticking - there had to be a lesson in there somewhere...
So often, we look at a problem, or a fear, or an obstacle of some sort, and it just seems huge. SO huge in fact, that we can't see how it can be tackled. We're so busy focusing on the issue, that we cannot see our huge God, who is so much bigger, and more than able to take on any issue (he is, after all the one who made that very big sun!)
Thinking about it some more I realised that sometimes the 't-shirt' could be disappointment in God. I prayed for a child to be healed, and she passed away. That disappointment obscured my view, and for a long time I was scared to pray. A few weeks ago, I heard about another child, who had been diagnosed with cancer, and had a tumor on his kidney the size of a tennis ball. I decided to look past the problem, and look to Jesus. We prayed for Ryan's healing, and a few days later the doctors got ready to operate - but they couldn't find the tumor! It had vanished - only God could do that!
So now, hopefully I will remember my lesson from the washing line, and when I am faced with a 't-shirt,' I will take a step back and look at my amazing God.
"Those who look to Him are radiant, their faces are never covered in shame." Psalm 34:5
"Step out of the traffic and take a long, loving look at me, your high God, above politics, above everything" Psalm 46:11 (The Message)
