Remove Blinders

Today was Good Shepherd Sunday........that's what the pastor said in church this morning. We sang two really beautiful Shepherd hymns: "The Lord's My Shepherd, I'll Not Want" and "The King of Love My Shepherd Is"......both are fun to sing because they have nice alto part harmonies.

In our church basement hangs this old Good Shepherd print by Werner Sallman, an artist famous for his various depictions of Jesus.

Our Sunday services are at 8:30 a.m. now, which is super inconvenient for us on the farm, thus Husband didn't make it to church this morning. Son and Daughter went with me, but we drove two vehicles because I planned to stay for Bible Class after church. The subject of the class was "Who are our brothers and sisters in Christ?".........something important to consider when sometimes we tend to be very near-sighted and introverted in our religious lives, seeing and interacting only with those who are similar to us, or who are standing next to us in church.

Funny thing.......after services I was in the church kitchen getting a drink of water and the flower lady was carrying one of two cumbersome flower bouquets down the steps from the altar area. I asked her if I could go up and get the remaining one for her, and she said yes. I went up two flights of old cement stairs, passing by the pastor's office, and into the sacristy where there was NO bouquet left on the altar. Perplexed, I turned around to retrace my steps, and saw that I had walked right by the huge pink bouquet sitting on a ledge at the top of the stairs.

I'd had my blinders on as I'd come up the stairs to the sacristy toting the preconceived notion in my head that the flower bouquet was on the altar. Evidently, one of the deacons had moved it to the ledge by the stairs. But, how unobservant of me to pass by just inches from the huge bunch of pink flowers and not see them!

Are we like that in other aspects of our lives, too? We have a goal in mind and in our effort to reach that goal, we are blind to important things right next to us along our path to that goal.

Note to self: "Remove blinders and notice things!!"

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After church.......whoops!........I took a wrong turn and ended up seeing this flooded field near a creek. The steering wheel just pulled me there!

When I got out of my vehicle to take this photo, there was a muskrat or beaver staring out from in the water, with all but his head submerged. I turned the camera on him and zoomed in, but it was too late. He had disappeared! In the foreground in the water is a collection of cornstalks which have washed out of the field.

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