What's on the Other Side of the Window?

Hanauma Bay, Oahu

Ever get lost in living life?  Where you have this overriding feeling of "missing the forest for the trees"?  The busyness and daily activities have squelched the  zest you have for living, and everything begins to feel like work - even the stuff you normally enjoy.  These are the times for stepping back a moment and reflecting on the big picture again.  


I enjoyed reading this engaging little story with a big lesson from Eugene Peterson:   

     Imagine yourself moving into a house with a huge 

     picture window overlooking a grand view across a 

     wide expanse of water enclosed by a range of 

     snow-capped mountains. You have a ringside seat   

     before wild storms and cloud formations, the 

     entire spectrum of sun-illuminated colors in the  

     rocks and trees and wildflowers and water. You are 

     captivated by the view. Several times a day you interrupt your work and stand before 

     this window to take in the majesty and the beauty, thrilled with the botanical and 

     meteorological fireworks. One afternoon you notice some bird droppings on the window 

     glass, get a bucket of water and a towel, and clean it. A couple of days later a rain-storm 

     leaves the window streaked, and the bucket comes out again. Another day visitors come 

     with a tribe of small dirty-fingered children. The moment they leave you see all the 

     smudge-marks on the glass. They are hardly out the door before you have the bucket 

     out... Keeping that window clean develops into an obsessive-compulsive neurosis. You 

     accumulate ladders and buckets and squeegees. You construct a scaffolding both inside 

     and out to make it possible to get to all the difficult corners and heights. You have the 

     cleanest window in North America - but it's now been years since you looked through it. 

     You've become a Pharisee. (The Jesus Way, p 211).

Just as this home owner missed the whole purpose of the picture window, we too can miss what's on the other side of our 'windows'.  To do so, we become as empty and compulsive as the Pharisees in the Bible. We miss life, even when it's right there before our eyes. 

So, what's on the other side of the window for you today?  Stop squeegeeing, take a deep breath and enjoy the life you have been given.