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About the Writer:
Carol
Ilbery

Depth, compassion and love are the tools Carol uses in her written communication. She paints pictures with words and develops concepts into application. As a mother of two daughters, one twelve years old and the other two years old, Carol is busy but makes time to express what she is learning about God in her life.


 

Can't See the Sunrise for the Blinds

by Carol Ilbery

While waiting on the dog, I was standing at the back door holding Sarah, who was about seven months old, and looking out the window. The sun was just starting to rise over the trees in the back yard. It was such a beautiful site! I wanted to share this with her, so I tried to get her to look through the slats of the blinds that covered the window. She couldn’t see past the blinds to behold the beauty of the sunrise. I pulled the white plastic slats apart in hopes she would see past the immediate distraction and look through them. That failed. I wasn’t disappointed; in fact, it brought a smile to my face.

While the smile didn’t last long, it was not because of my inability to get her to see the sunrise. In fact, it was Sarah’s fascination with the blinds that caused contemplation to replace the grin. I started to wonder how many times I have done the same thing in my life. So I was prodded to see the similarities between my seven-month old and myself. I wondered how many sunrises I had missed because of my failure to look past the “blinds” because I failed to trust God. I failed to trust that what God desired for me was what was best.

Just like Sarah thought playing with the blinds was better than what lay beyond them, I thought my solutions were better than what God had planned as well as what else was going on in my life. While she missed out on one sunrise with her mother, I fear I have missed out on many blessings as well as being sinful in not trusting the One who gave His Son for me.

Can you see the sunrise? Are little pieces of plastic obstructing your view? God can help you look past them. All you have to do is ask for help. Ask Him to help you let go of your need to know how things will work out. Ask Him to help you let go of your ideas of what is best for you, allowing you to surrender it all to His will. God will not let you down.

(NIV) Jeremiah 29:11-14a “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord…

 

Copyright © February 3, 2006 – Carol Ilbery. All rights reserved.

 

 

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