Eyeglasses Search

The other night found Dean and I once again searching for a misplaced item. His eyeglasses had been missing for a couple of days and I was finally determined to look everywhere for them. He thought they must be in his eyeglass case because it was missing too.

Normally he keeps the case on his bedside stand. So I proceeded to scour that area first. Standing on my head practically to see if it had fallen at the head of the bed or even under the bed. With no success there, I fanned my search out to other areas of the bedroom and then all rooms of the house.

How totally ridiculous I felt when Dean came to bed that night. He lifted one of his two pillows to fluff before lying down, and you guessed it...there was the glasses case! Safely tucked under his pillow.

When trials have come in the past to this household, I've often wondered where God is. No matter how frantically I've searched for God though, it's usually not until I lay down to "rest" that His presence becomes obvious.

Perhaps this is why God gave us a "day of rest". He mysteriously does seem easier to find on the day He blessed for that purpose. Some say that keeping the Sabbath is obeying through our works, but true Sabbath observance is not about works--not about searching frantically on our own--but resting in Jesus and what He's done for us already.

The Gift Card

Last year we received a gift card for $100, and I held on to it until a really valid need came up. As a matter of fact, it's been so long since we got it, I have even forgotten who gave it to us. I finally decided that new eyeglasses would be my Christmas gift this year and went in to pick out the frames today. My old glasses have been held together with electrical tape for months now.

The price of each tri-focal lens was fifty dollars, so that helped me decide that the gift card was destined to be used for this purchase. That and the expiration date on the card being 2020.

God's gift card of salvation waits around til we choose to use it too. The expiration date on His offer is our own expiration date though. Maybe we shouldn't wait around too long!

Missing Eyeglasses

Yesterday my daughter called and asked if her eyeglasses were still on the dining room table where she left them earlier in the day, when she was visiting here. I remember her distinctly putting them there, so we were both mystified when they showed up missing again from the table.

The first place I looked this time was on Dean's face. (See August 2012 "Connecting the Dots".) He was sporting thin-wired glasses, but they were bifocals, so we deemed him innocent this time. Then I checked the floor under the table and by the computer, but all were empty of anyone's glasses. By now, I was feeling innocent myself. The eyeglasses were evidently somewhere besides my house.

Then this morning as my nephew and I were about to walk out the door by the dining room table to leave for his work, he almost stepped on a pair of wire-framed glasses on the floor. They were invisible, lying on my dark-patterned carpet. It was fortunate that they didn't get crushed underfoot. Somehow they must have gotten knocked off the table and onto the floor, which proved to be a perfect hiding place for them.

God has promised to be a hiding place for us. When we get knocked around by life's trials, when trouble is looking for us, and when the pressures of life are about to crush us, God conceals us protectively amidst the pattern of His will. Seek His will and it will sustain you and lift you up in the end.

"Timberrrr!"

There were a couple of highlights in my day. The first was when I had to rush outside in my bare feet to prevent Dean from going out to get the mail in his underwear this morning. Our new mailman comes unusually early now. Didn't realize how many acorns there were on the driveway till I found myself trying to avoid them in my bare feet.

Then this afternoon when we went to get some new eyeglasses for Dean (we've been looking over a month for the ones he lost), he almost fell once by not clearing the receptionist's desk enough, and then he actually did fall when he was about to sit in a chair to get fitted for glasses. I'm talking about a full sprawled-out-his-whole-length-on-the-floor kind of fall. Fortunately, he didn't hit any dangerous objects coming down and wasn't hurt, but getting him back up was the hard part. It took three women staff members to do the trick.

He falls so slowly, like in slow motion. Reminds me of the big trees that he used to fell when he logged in the mountains of Montana when we were young. One is almost tempted to shout "timber" before he actually lands.

Even though his angels didn't bear him up today in their hands (Psalm 91), they did send plenty of human "angels" to get him up off the floor. And that's what the good Lord does for all of us. We can count on Him to get us back up when we fall into sin. No matter what kind of fall it is. And no matter what kind of sin.

Connecting the Dots

Several days ago my daughter asked if she left her wire-rimmed eyeglasses at my house. She seemed to think they were left on my dining room table. I told her I remembered seeing them there, but that they weren't there now, so maybe she left them somewhere else. Of course, I said I'd keep looking for them around the house.

A day or so later, Dean announced that he wasn't wearing his newest prescription glasses. He couldn't find them, so was wearing an old pair he had. This has happened before, so I didn't pay much attention at the time. All his wire-rimmed glasses look about the same to me.

Then last night Dean said he couldn't find even the old pair he was wearing, so I made a search around his recliner, which has a reputation for swallowing up his lost objects. There near it on the floor was a pair of eyeglasses. As I picked them up, they looked familiar. I asked Dean if he was sure they were his, because they looked very similar to Kayla's glasses. Of course, he wasn't sure about anything, even whether he had first found them on the table.

I couldn't hold Dean accountable for "stealing" glasses, but I sure felt like a fool myself for not connecting the dots sooner. Here I had been looking all over for Kayla's glasses, even asking for Dean's assistance, and all along the glasses were right in front of our noses. And literally ON Dean's nose!

How many people search for God all their lives, when He's as close to them as a pair of eyeglasses--sitting majestically right in front of their eyes?