In the corner of my kitchen cabinet, I have a can of cat food and a bottle of root beer concentrate. I don’t own a cat, and I have no idea what root beer concentrate is used for. It’s just the place where I place the things that I have mistakenly purchased in the past due to misreading the labels at the store. I would have taken the stuff back years ago, but I felt foolish for not being able to see what I was buying.
Things like that seemed to happen a lot when I began losing my eyesight in my late teens. I hated going anywhere for fear of mistakenly doing something wrong like walking into the wrong restroom (it only happened once, but once was too many). I finally decided to move across the country to live closer to family. I thought with them near I might not feel as isolated and would not buy any more things like root beer concentrate. It was during my trip across the country that I learned that I wasn’t so isolated. The bus I was riding had to stop for fuel and cleaning. I went into the station to find a drink. All I found was a pop machine in the corner. I pulled the change out of my pocket and looked for the coin slot. I stood there for fifteen minutes just trying to find the slot to place my change. If someone walked up behind me, I left and acted as if I changed my mind. It was embarrassing, because for the life of me, I could not see where to put the change in for my drink. Eventually, I found the coin slot and bought my can of soda.
As I stood there drinking my well-earned Dr. Pepper, a little, elderly lady approached the pop machine. She studied the machine for a minute, and I could tell she could not find the coin slot either. Not wanting her to feel as foolish as I had, I stepped up and showed her the coin slot. As she put the money into the machine, she turned to me and said, “One of these days, you’ll grow old and your sight won’t be as good either.” I couldn’t help but start laughing. She didn’t know that she probably had better eyesight than I did.
I realized something that day which changed how I dealt with my vision loss. I had always felt isolated as if no one could possibly understand what I was going through. I learned that everyone has something that affects how they live. For me, my eyesight had affected how I lived at that time, but for someone else it could be something different. It doesn’t even have to be a physical limitation. We all have something in our lives that, at times, hinders us. The key is to keeping an open mind and reaching out for help when we need it. I had thought that asking for help made me different, but the opposite is true.
As I have gotten older, one other fact has become clear. Even in my blindness, I was never alone; I just never knew it. All I had to do was call out, and Christ was there. The Bible is full of people who felt isolated, and yet when no one else could reach them, Christ was there.
Just maybe if I had asked for help a little earlier than I did, I would not have a bottle of root beer concentrate or that Yanni cd.
Things like that seemed to happen a lot when I began losing my eyesight in my late teens. I hated going anywhere for fear of mistakenly doing something wrong like walking into the wrong restroom (it only happened once, but once was too many). I finally decided to move across the country to live closer to family. I thought with them near I might not feel as isolated and would not buy any more things like root beer concentrate. It was during my trip across the country that I learned that I wasn’t so isolated. The bus I was riding had to stop for fuel and cleaning. I went into the station to find a drink. All I found was a pop machine in the corner. I pulled the change out of my pocket and looked for the coin slot. I stood there for fifteen minutes just trying to find the slot to place my change. If someone walked up behind me, I left and acted as if I changed my mind. It was embarrassing, because for the life of me, I could not see where to put the change in for my drink. Eventually, I found the coin slot and bought my can of soda.
As I stood there drinking my well-earned Dr. Pepper, a little, elderly lady approached the pop machine. She studied the machine for a minute, and I could tell she could not find the coin slot either. Not wanting her to feel as foolish as I had, I stepped up and showed her the coin slot. As she put the money into the machine, she turned to me and said, “One of these days, you’ll grow old and your sight won’t be as good either.” I couldn’t help but start laughing. She didn’t know that she probably had better eyesight than I did.
I realized something that day which changed how I dealt with my vision loss. I had always felt isolated as if no one could possibly understand what I was going through. I learned that everyone has something that affects how they live. For me, my eyesight had affected how I lived at that time, but for someone else it could be something different. It doesn’t even have to be a physical limitation. We all have something in our lives that, at times, hinders us. The key is to keeping an open mind and reaching out for help when we need it. I had thought that asking for help made me different, but the opposite is true.
As I have gotten older, one other fact has become clear. Even in my blindness, I was never alone; I just never knew it. All I had to do was call out, and Christ was there. The Bible is full of people who felt isolated, and yet when no one else could reach them, Christ was there.
Just maybe if I had asked for help a little earlier than I did, I would not have a bottle of root beer concentrate or that Yanni cd.
Yes, we are not alone as Jesus Christ is with us, ALL THE TIME!