Hiding in Plain Sight

This is a true story.  A friend of mine once bought himself a ukulele.   His wife had told hime not to buy more things.  They had too much stuff and in particular he had too many musical instruments.  He didn't need any more but this was a particularly nice one at a good price.  So he came up with a plan.  He would put it behind the sofa.  And after a day or two he would move it so that a little of it could be seen.  Then a little more and a little more each day.  His plan was to slowly get her used to seeing it, until it seemed like it had always been there.  I would put this plan into the category of just crazy enough to work, because amazingly, it did.  That was several years ago, and if I'm outing you with this blog post, sorry,  Sometimes we don't see what is in front of our eyes.

Sometimes we don't see what is right in front of our eyes.  Sometimes at school when I am looking for a student, it turns out that they are in the front row, right in front of me.  They were too close to see.  There are all types of examples of things we look past because we are used to it.  We don't see the spot on the rug, be no longer hear the humming of a fan, the ache in our knees.  We become used to it and it just seems like it was always there.  In the movie "The Blues Brothers" they are living right next to the train tracks.  When asked how often the train goes by, Elwood responds, "So often you won't even notice it."  We don't notice things that we see all of the time.

This is equally true for our sense of awe.  The amazing is just normal when we get used to it.  When my son was little he would ask me to "make up"a story.  I put it in quotes because I would shamelessly tell classic stories as if I were making them up.  I remember telling him the story of jack and the beanstalk.  Jack climbs the stalk and sees a castle in the clouds, my son's eyes got wide with excitement.  He was seeing the story in his mind for the first time.  

And so it's the Christmas season.  Pastor Mike used to say that preaching at Christmas was difficult because most people had been hearing the Christmas story since they were children.  It was very familiar and unlike a fairy tale, these events happened and are relevant to peophe trick is getting people to see it.  Here, watch this clip from Pastor Mike.

Our Christmas traditions are familiar and comfortable.  The trick for each of us is to keep it fresh as if we are hearing it for the first time.