Reflections in a Mud Puddle

Last weekend we were at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains and I pulled over into the gravel turn-around on Sparks Lane beside Abrams Creek after noticing a couple very large water puddles... okay, they were more like mud puddles.

I placed my camera down on the gravel beside one puddle, pointed in the general area I was hoping to capture and clicked. Believe me, no one was more surprised and pleased by the result of shooting over the top of a muddy puddle on a gravel pullout.

This is what I experience so often in my walk with Jesus. Each day is a new opportunity for surprises and simple pleasures. Sometimes it just requires looking at situations from a new or different perspective. I would have missed this entirely had I only looked from eye-level. In order to appreciate what God is doing in my life I have to step out of the picture and try looking from God's perspective, asking myself, "What is He trying to show me? How does He want my life to be transformed through this experience? Is this just another mud puddle in my way or is it an opportunity for God to display His glory before me and through me?"

The Lord spoke to the prophet Ezekiel, saying:

“Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people." (Ezekiel 12:2)

I pray that my eyes and ears will always be attentive to what God desires for me to see and hear. Rebellion against God keeps people blind and deaf. You hear better when your ears are clean. You see better through a clean lens.

Clean me, Lord, that I may reflect on you and life lessons meant to build Christlike character in me.