Blind Spots

I’m usually a very organized, perceptive person. I can see the big picture and also details. But there was one very trivial event in my past that comes to mind every now and then to remind me that we all have blind spots. Things we just don’t see until something comes along that opens our eyes, and then we find it hard to believe that we didn’t see it before.

Ten years ago God moved us from Southern California to Phoenix. When we got there we found a great house and bought it. Selling a house in California and moving to Phoenix is easy. The reverse… not so much. Our house in the desert was even on a golf course since I needed to see grass.

A year after we moved into that new house I discovered that there was another drawer in the kitchen that I had never seen before. A whole year!! I don’t know what led me to pull it open, but when I did, there was a big drawer with nothing in it. And for most of us, finding extra space in our kitchens is priceless. I still can’t figure out how I went a whole year without noticing that empty drawer was there just waiting to be used.

Now in my defense, the kitchen had one of those stove tops that was not above and connected to the oven. It was simply set into the kitchen counter above some cupboards. So the part of the cabinet directly under the stove top looked like one of those fake things they put in front of sinks since there isn’t room for a drawer there. But in this kitchen… there was a drawer there under the stove top!

It’s been ten years since I found that empty drawer. And even now, whenever I find myself thinking that I have something all figured out – that I’ve got all the answers – I remember that drawer. Even though it was a silly insignificant thing, it reminds me that we all have blind spots - things that are totally off our radar until all the sudden we see them, and we wonder how in the world we didn’t see them before.

It reminds me that I need to always be open to growing and learning. And I need to constantly be asking God to help me see what’s true and what’s not. What’s really important and what’s not. Because blind spots happen to all of us. We just don’t know what they are until something comes along that opens our eyes. And it happens with more important things than just an extra kitchen drawer.