Bush Eyes

  A newly appointed missionary was walking along a jungle trail with some natives. Suddenly, one of the natives fired his gun and by doing so, killed a huge green snake lying in the path ahead. The missionary had not seen the snake and would have stepped on it. As they walked on, the native stopped the missionary and asked, “Do you see the leopard?” The missionary said that he did not see the leopard – just shadows. When the leopard was pointed out to him, he asked, “Why could I not see the snake or the leopard? I walk on the same path as you do – you see the snake; I just see the path. You point out the leopard and I just see shadows.  Why can’t I see those things?”  The native responded, “You have to develop ‘bush eyes.’ If you stay in the jungle long enough, you will develop what we call ‘bush eyes.’

 
Some people can walk through life and never see the blessings of God; are never truly grateful for what they receive from Him. But when the Holy Spirit begins to develop our ‘bush eyes’ we begin to see blessings we have never seen before.

•   We begin to develop attitudes of gratitude for things around us.
•   We begin to see the beauty and worth of persons around us.
•   We begin to see God where no one else sees Him.
•   We begin to see God when everyone else sees a newborn baby.
•   We begin to see God when everyone else sees a flower.
• ·We begin to see God in a bubbling stream of water when others just see the movement
  

            of  water.

• We begin to hear God speak to us in a song – when others just hear a melody.
• We begin to hear the voice of God even in a moment of silence – when others think that silence is a waste of time.
• We begin to see God in the vastness of the heavens – when others just see points of light.

 
Complaining seems to be a way of life for many, even Christians. One of the sins that God dislikes is that of complaining – or murmuring.  Numbers 11:1 reads, “Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord.” Our society seems to have something in common with those Israelites thousands of years ago. There seems to be very little gratitude for what God has blessed us with. I can understand where an unbeliever might be ungrateful, but the Christian ought always to be grateful to God for His unlimited blessings. Reading the Book of Psalms, we find innumerable references to being thankful. One we are most familiar with is found in Psalm 100:4, “Enter into His gates with THANKSGIVING and into His court with PRAISE.” The spiritual life is not difficult. We often make it difficult. All we need to do is look a little closer at the ‘ordinary’ things in our lives, realizing that they come from God. Asking God to develop our ‘bush eyes’ will enable us to see unlimited blessings that heretofore have gone unnoticed. As has been said, ‘from a grateful heart springs untold blessing.’  May that blessing be yours!